Sunday’s rain didn’t just bring flooding to the area’s roads and basements, it set a new date record for most rainfall recorded at the Morgantown airport.
“It was very heavy and very localized,” Chris Leonardi, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said of Sunday’s storm.
The sensor at the Morgantown airport recorded 1.92 inches of rain, surpassing the previous date record of 1.42 inches in 1951, Leonardi said.
There are radar indications that parts of eastern Monongalia County, into Preston County, got as much as 5 inches of rain, he said.
While 1.92 inches of rain would cause flooding anyway, the ground was already saturated from rain the previous week, Leonardi said. It also didn’t help that Sunday’s storm was slow-moving.
Monongalia County 911 took 30 reports of flood structures, mostly in basements, and 16 reports of downed trees, director Jim Smith said. Most of those calls came in from 1-7 p.m.
Two people needed to be rescued from their vehicles after driving through standing water and becoming stuck, Smith said. One of those was on Valley View Road near Chateau Royale apartments and the WVU Medicine parking garage.
Smith said such a large amount of rain in such a short amount of time overwhelmed the drainage systems on many roads, notably around the intersection of Patteson Drive and University Avenue. Driving through standing water is dangerous and if you can’t see the road, “don’t drown, turn around,” Smith said.
The Morgantown Fire Department assisted in clearing water from basements and provided rescue services, city communications director Andrew Stacy said. The Morgantown Police Department directed traffic until water receded.
Smith spoke with the City of Morgantown and West Virginia Division of Highways about the damage on Monday morning. He said the DOH was going to take care of some damage on Aarons Creek Road and Beulah Road on Monday.
There is damage to the road at the intersection of University Avenue and Patteson Drive, but it is safe to drive on, Stacy said. The city’s engineering department started assessing the damage to city property shortly after the storm on Sunday. Engineers are working with the Morgantown Utility Board to inspect the box culvert that crosses under the intersection before permanent repairs are made.
“In the meantime, crews will place a temporary patch on it,” Stacy said. “Other than that, the damage was primarily downed trees damaging fencing and debris.”
Annie Darlene, who lives on the corner of Aspen Street and Collins Ferry Road, had 4 1/2 feet of water come into her basement, she posted on a Facebook group.
There was a chance of additional rain on Monday, Leonardi said. The next decent chance of rain is on Friday with a cooler-and-less-humid week in between. Daytime temperatures should be in the 70s until Friday, when it climbs back into the lower 80s, Leonardi said.
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