One home was evacuated Thursday afternoon after a large slide along River Road tore down power lines and left rocks, earth and large trees spanning the roadway.
Jimmy Smith, director of the Monongalia County Emergency Management Agency/MECCA 911, said nobody was injured, but it’s going to take some time to get everything cleaned up and power restored to the area.
“There was a major slide that occurred on River Road again today,” Smith said. “There is a home above where the slide occurred. That lady was evacuated out of the house and went with relatives.”
If traveling from the Joseph Bartolo Memorial (Westover) Bridge, Smith said the slide broke loose about 150 yards before Lockside Road — off which the Monongalia County K-9 Adoption Center and motor pool are located.
Smith went on to say that power will likely be off in the area for days.
“The power company is advising it’s probably going to be several days before power can be restored just due to the amount of debris that’s slid down. The [West Virginia Division of Highways] DOH is going to have to get that road cleared. Then I think the power company is looking at running a new power line coming down River Road from DuPont [Road].”
Monongalia County Commission President Tom Bloom said the commission is “very concerned” about the situation. He said the adoption center and motor pool are operating on generator power and that the county would issue a statement this morning on whether the K-9 center will be open to customers.
“There are a number of medicines the pound has that must remain refrigerated, so the generators are providing power,” Bloom said, explaining that while the commission hadn’t received any official briefing on the slide, he and Facilities Director Bobby Doyle went out to assess things.
“It’s not a good situation. Let’s just leave it at that,” Bloom said.
The power outage also impacted the Morgantown Lock and Dam, which is also operating on backup power.
A representative of the Pittsburgh Army Corps of Engineers said the corps is monitoring the situation but doesn’t expect it to impact operation of the facility.
Ironically, DOH District 4 Engineer Don Williams was across the river attending a meeting at the Morgantown Marriott, at Waterfront Place.
“A fellow walked in and said, ‘I just saw the hillside falling,’ ” Williams said. “It’s just all this saturation. I don’t have a lot of information right now other than we’re aware of it, and we’re out there on the scene taking the appropriate measures to get it back open.”
Williams told the Monongalia County Commission in January that River Road became a money hole for the state, and conversations internally at the DOH explored the permanent closure of at least a portion of the slide-prone road.
“We can’t keep it in place. It’s falling over the hill,” Williams said at the time. “We’re spending millions and millions of dollars on River Road.”
Smith said that once the DOH begins clearing the debris, there appears to be more ready to take it’s place.
“Right now, the road is just full,” Smith said. “At this point, it does look like it’s going to continue to slide. From what we’ve seen, there’s still quite a bit of debris that looks like it’s going to come down.”
