LAWRENCE MESSINA
Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) _ Rescuers had to scrounge for boats Monday as flash flooding forced rural residents out of their homes and blocked the road to the city's airport. Employees at a FedEx depot had to retreat to the roof as the water rose.
There were no immediate reports of any deaths or injuries as water rushed down creeks and roads in rural areas of Kanawha County west and north of Charleston, and in Nicholas County to the east.
The two rugged counties got 2 to 3 inches of rain between midnight and noon. The ground was already saturated by heavy rain over the past week.
``We believe we are going to have a long-term, serious series of events. We are absolutely swamped,'' said Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper.
Rescue workers using boats picked up more than 30 residents in the community of Pinch, just north of Charleston, said Volunteer Fire Chief Sonny Wagner. ``We have high water all around us,'' he said.
Rescue workers had to scrounge for boats to retrieve residents stranded by high water.
Charleston's hilltop Yeager Airport remained open to flights, but high water blocked a bridge on the main access road, cutting off travelers for more than two hours, marketing director Brian Belcher said.
Belcher said the airport's conference room became a shelter for several area families who had hiked up wooded hillsides in advance of rising water.
``They were wet, didn't have much clothes with them. Some didn't have shoes,'' he said.
The same flood that blocked the airport road also swamped a Federal Express depot. At least a dozen workers took refuge on the roof.
A FedEx truck was washed off the airport road bridge. One rescuer had to be rescued himself after the propeller on a boat he was riding in jammed.
In Nicholas County, mudslides and water closed a highway near Drennen, where several houses and a church were flooded by water up to 6 feet deep.
About 5,000 American Electric Power customers in Kanawha County lost electricity, most because of trees falling onto power lines.
