MORGANTOWN — It’s not a difficult equation.
Too much water. Too little time.
That, said Morgantown Utility Board spokesman Chris Dale, is what turned Evansdale into a scene from “A River Runs Through It” after heavy rains June 13.
The storms flooded basements and downed trees across the county. Two people needed to be rescued from their vehicles after driving through standing water and becoming stuck.
“Flooding occurred not just because of the significant amounts of rain that fell, but because of the very narrow time period in which it fell,” Dale said. “What’s more, the heaviest rains appear to have occurred at very specific locations. There are reports of measurements of nearly 5 inches of rainfall in less than an hour along Stewart Street, while our water treatment plant measured 1.6 inches for the day.”
The disparity was also noted by the National Weather Service, whose radar indicated specific areas of Monongalia and Preston counties got five inches of rain, while the sensor at the Morgantown Municipal Airport recorded 1.92 inches.
Dale said MUB’s storm-water system handled the deluge delivered by what’s being called a 100-year storm “exemplarily.”
“This can be seen in the rapidity with which the waters receded. It can also be seen in how well the system manages flows on a daily, weekly and annual basis without fail,” he said, adding, “There is no doubt that this storm was of historical proportion. It was an unfortunate event — an act of nature — for which no reasonably constructed system could be expected to manage.”
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