Heavy flooding in Virginia damages over 100 homes

Seventeen people are still unaccounted for and more than 100 homes have been damaged after flooding caused by torrential rains swept through a rural county in Virginia.

The disaster occurred overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning in Buchanan County.

More than a dozen search-and-rescue teams have been dispatched in and around the small community of Whitewood, Buchanan county chief deputy sheriff Eric Breeding said at a briefing.

As of Wednesday morning, 25 people had been found, with no injuries or deaths reported.

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Flooding hits rural, mountainous area

A photo shows the inside of a church upended after flooding in Whitewood, Virginia. This area of the state, in the far southwest, borders Kentucky and West Virginia, in a rural section of the Appalachian Mountains.

A church on Thursday, shown with water damage and seats strewn over the floor after flooding in Buchanan County

(AP)

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Homes reported to have ripped out of their foundations

A displaced home sits over mud and a car in Whitewood, Virginia on Thursday, the result of dangerous flooding

(AP)

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Photos show heavy flooding in southwest Virginia

Images show overflowing of the Dismal Creek running through the small community of Pilgrim’s Knob in Buchanan County, Virginia after intense rainfall on Wednesday

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Flash flooding could get worse with the climate crisis

The flooding in southwest Virginia came on within hours, as heavy rainfall doused the region.

These kinds of events could get more common as the planet heats up from greenhouse gas emissions – a recent study has found that warmer temperatures could lead to storms that dump more and more water all at once, increasing the risk of flash flooding across many parts of the US.

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The Virginia State police have reported via a tweet that 25 people had been located overnight, 17 still to be found with no reports of injuries or deaths.

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Infrastructure buckles, homes badly damaged after flash flooding

Search-and-rescue teams were being hampered by roadways blocked by landslides and approaches to bridges that are washed out, according to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

Video footage from the scene showed small homes that had been lifted off their foundations, and others choked with mud and debris.

Hundreds of homes had lost power in the area. Some 2,773 customers were without power in Virginia on Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks outages in real-time.

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Images emerge after catastrophic flooding overnight in rural area of state

Damage from flooding is shown in the Whitewood community of Buchanan County, Virginia early on Wednesday

(AP)

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Flash flooding wreaks havoc

Buchanan County and nearby Tazewell County in Virginia received 3-7 inches of rain in a 24 hour period, the National Weather Service reported on Tuesday night.

Heavy thunderstorms also led to flash flooding late on Tuesday along the Little Pigeon River in eastern Tennessee, AP reported.

That flooding prompted the evacuation of more than 400 people from a campground.

No injuries were reported in the Tennessee flooding, but vehicles and debris from the Greenbrier Campground were washed downstream by floodwaters, Sevier County Assistant Mayor Perrin Anderson told news outlets.

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Virginia Governor declares a state of emergency

Virginia Governor Glenn Younkin declared a state of emergency on Wednesday in response to the severe flooding in the area.

“As we continue to assess the situation, I want to thank our first responders and the personnel on the ground for providing assistance with our ongoing operations in Buchanan County. While rescue and recovery continues, please join me in prayer as we lift up our fellow Virginians impacted by this tragedy,” Youngkin said in a statement.



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