Flood waters rose on February 16, 2003 and required the work of the County Office of Emergency Services, Fire, State Police, and EMS to assist with the evacuations. Over 3/4 of the county was without power and the temperature fell below 30 degrees.
Crews worked around the clock at the County Office of Emergency Services to get help from the State level. 911 Dispatchers answered 1,683 calls in a few hours. The 911 center works with a normal staff of one dispatcher, but before it was all over, they had 9 dispatchers in the office working 12 hours shifts.
Office of Emergency Services workers were working 24 on 12 off and the fire units were responding to numerous calls. Governor Bob Wise came to the flooded county to see what help he could provide for the county. Fire units had 4 house fires within minutes of each other. Two houses were a total lost and one person was killed by the flood waters.
