Chopped-up tree in Jackie's ditch



Car stuck in White Rock floodwaters

Flooding,  as usual, in Marion County

Good ol’ White Rock was under water, as usual, on U.S. 19 between Monongah and Fairmont.

Paw Paw Creek came up over the road near the home of Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, in Rivesville. And toppled a tree across the highway.

Jackie was awakened at 4 a.m. by the sound of chainsaws trying to clear away the tree. Workers left the dismembered tree’s parts in Jackie’s ditch, which formed a dam that caused the rains to flow onto the road again.

Not every efficient cleanup.

Monongah playgrounds were inundated, too.

The Fairmont Times story:

FAIRMONT — High waters caused flooding and road closures across Marion County on Friday.
Many regions experienced high waters due to rain the past few days, though not at the level in August of 2017.
The closet observation point to determine rainfall accumulation for the area was located in Morgantown, which saw 1.44 inches of rain since the early hours on Friday, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Alyson Hoegg.

West Virginia 511, which provided live road condition updates on its Twitter (@WV511North), tweeted out a total of six advisories in the past 24 hours for the area, varying from mudslides to high water.
Mike Angelucci, director of the Marion County Rescue Squad, said they were dispatched to assist with a water rescue in Monongah in which a woman attempted to drive through high water but got stuck. They also had water rescue equipment staged in Worthington, but did not need to use it.
In Mannington, Water Street was closed for several hours due to high water. Mannington mayor Jim Taylor said the flooding was not as bad as it was in August, but that Water Street was closed because the culverts were not draining. He said that he didn’t receive any calls from anyone who experienced flooding in their homes.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System, at Whetstone Run near Mannington, the gage recorded a height of 23.19 feet Friday, reached at 7 p.m. and slowly on the decline since then. By comparison, the gage topped out at 13.76 feet on Thursday, and the maximum gage height is 26.17.
At Buffalo Creek at Barrackville, the top height of 11.60 feet was reached at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The gage topped out at 3.88 feet on Thursday.
Nearby areas experienced some different but equally troubling weather this week.
In Uniontown, Pennsylvania, about 49 miles north of Fairmont, AccuWeather confirmed that there was an EF1 rated tornado that touched down Thursday evening at winds of 105 mph.
“Winds of 105 mph are at the top of the EF-1 (Enhanced Fujita-scale) rating. It’s pretty rare to have tornadoes at this point,” Hoegg said.
The upcoming forecast hints at more precipitation and possible flooding in the area later in the week.

“There will be some rain and mixed snow starting (this) afternoon probably around 2 p.m. and will continue in through the evening hours coming to an end by 10 p.m.,” Hoegg said. “I do think it’s mixed rain and snow throughout the entire event with temperature (expected) to be around 40 degrees. So it’s going to be really hard for any snow to accumulate, but I could see some grassy surfaces picking up an inch of snow across the area.”
In terms of today’s rainfall, Hoegg expects to see another quarter to a half an inch overall.
“It might be enough to aggravate any ongoing flooding streets, but once you get past tomorrow I do think it will dry out for Sunday,” Hoegg said. “It should be a partly sunny day overall and temperatures in the mid to upper 40s.
A bigger concern to Hoegg was the potential of new flooding in the middle part of the upcoming week.
“There’s going to be another system coming through that will be in the Wednesday time period. So mid-next week there could be some more flooding, but I think it’s still a ways out then, and we will have to keep an eye on it for how much heavy rain potential,” Hoegg said.
 

 

Frank Franze, Class of 1950, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana, reports that “We are all OK. We are high and dry.”

Thousands of Louisianans are not.

Seven died in the floods caused by 30 inches of rainfall. More than 20,000 had to be rescued.

There are 10,000 in shelters.

The federal government declared a major disaster in Louisiana Sunday after torrential rain inundated the state. Six river gauges reached record depths.

Baton Rouge, the state capital and home of Louisiana State University, was hit hard, particularly the eastern half into Denham Springs. So the worst flooding was 70 to 90 miles from Frank’s home in Slidell.

Motorists were stranded on Interstate 12. State police and National Guard went car to car to rescue them. A produce truck, also stranded, distributed food to the motorists. 125 vehicles were stranded on a seven-mile stretch between Tangipahoa Parish and Baton Rouge.

More than 1,000 homes were flooded in Baton Rouge, more than 1,000 in Livingston, 200 in St. Helena Parish and more than 500 in Tangipahoa Parish.

Actor Wendell Pierce, who starred in the “Treme” series that depicted the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in vivid terms, had his home destroyed by the Baton Rouge flooding. Pierce’s parents’ home was damaged by Katrina.

Pierce worked on several projects to aid in New Orleans’ battle back from the ravages of Katrina, which cost Greater New Orleans about half its population through death and moving elsewhere.

  

200 Louisiana Air National Guard and 750 National Guard are handling rescues. Watercraft also are being used in rescues. Buses are evacuating residents from flooded communities.

Ochsner Medical Center in Baton Rouge evacuated patients.

Even the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion was flooded, forcing evacuation.

68-year-old William Mayfield drowned when he slipped and fell into floodwaters at his trailer park near Zachary, Louisiana.

Flooding is not a stranger to Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 drove 30,000 to the Louisiana SuperDome and 19,000 to the New Orleans Convention Center for safety. 100,000 had no transportation. 60,000 were rescued. 1,577 died in Louisiana. 300,000 homes were destroyed. There was $81 billion in property damage.

As many fled to other states, the population of Greater New Orleans shrank from 1 million to 581,418. Nearly half the residents died or moved elsewhere.

Frank moved from Jasper, Texas to Slidell after his second wife, Linda Corkern Franze, passed away in 2013 to be nearer his children, who were caught in Hurricane Katrina.