Many people in southwestern Virginia remained unaccounted for Wednesday evening after torrential rain flooded communities in rural Buchanan County, causing heavy damage to homes and prompting residents to flee to higher ground, authorities said.
About 40 people were unaccounted for after the rain from late Tuesday into Wednesday morning, County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Eric Breeding said at a news briefing. At 6 p.m., sheriff’s dispatcher Anita Smith said, “We’ve been able to locate some people, but we’re still trying to locate some.”
Corinne Geller, a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, said many of the missing may be safe but unable to contact authorities or their loved ones because of broken cell phone service and widespread power outages.
“Just because people can’t be reached doesn’t mean they’re gone,” she said. “We hope that many of them have simply left their homes and moved to higher ground.”
Authorities said Wednesday evening that there were no confirmed deaths. News footage showed widespread property damage with small houses washed off their foundations and vehicles caked in mud. The area was also hit by devastating floods last summer.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) declared a state of emergency to aid response and recovery efforts. “We are deeply saddened to learn that another flood has affected a community that is still recovering from last year’s flood,” Youngkin said in a statement. “In the wake of this devastation, I want Virginians in Buchanan County to know that we are making every resource available to help those affected by this storm.”
Breeding said the first search and rescue teams arrived in Buchanan County, about 30 miles east of the Kentucky border, at 3 a.m. Wednesday. After an aerial survey of the area at dawn showed extensive damage, more teams were called in and door-to-door searches for survivors began.
“We have approximately 18 search and rescue organizations assisting,” Breeding said at the midday briefing. He added: “We have no confirmed deaths at this time.”
Lauren Oppett, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, stressed that conditions in the area make it difficult to count the unknowns. “At this time, we do not have a specific number of people who remain unaccounted for due to difficulty accessing areas cut off by flooding,” she said in an email. “There is no electricity, no landline service, and no cell phone service in the affected area, which is also affecting the ability to reach residents.”
The flooding occurred as multiple thunderstorms with torrential rainfall repeatedly passed over the same area. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning at 10:06 p.m. Tuesday, which remained in effect until 1:19 a.m. Wednesday for Tazewell County, which borders Buchanan County. He warned that up to 5 inches of rain was possible and that small creeks, streams and low-lying areas could flood.
In Pilgrims Knob, Va., a community in Buchanan County about 80 miles west of Blacksburg, the gauge recorded 4.55 inches of rain. Much of that fell in just two hours, between 8am and 10pm on Tuesday. The downpours were triggered by a strong cold front sweeping across the Mid-Atlantic, which also produced severe thunderstorms in the Washington-Baltimore area Tuesday evening.
The flooding in Buchanan County is the second in less than 12 months. In early September, about 50 people needed rescue and one person died as the remnants of Hurricane Ida passed through the region, the Associated Press reported. Studies have documented an increase in extreme precipitation events in the eastern United States linked to human-caused climate change.
Gregory S. Schneider contributed to this report.
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