Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 16, 1990 TAG: 9006160230
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SHADYSIDE, OHIO LENGTH: Medium
Raging floodwaters late Thursday swept homes off foundations and washed away cars. About 200 people were reported evacuated in central Ohio.
"The valleys are choked with debris," Gov. Richard Celeste told reporters after flying over the hilly Appalachian region in eastern Ohio. "A wall of water wiped a path through the area."
The governor declared a state of emergency, and dispatched about 50 National Guardsmen to the area.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency declared Belmont County, which includes Shadyside, and Jefferson and Franklin counties disaster areas, making federal aid available to residents. Seventeen counties now have been declared disaster areas because of flooding or tornadoes since May 29.
Ten bodies were taken to the Bauknecht Funeral Home in Shadyside, said Bob Bell, funeral director. One body was taken to Bellaire City Hospital, he said.
Chuck Vogt, Belmont County coroner's investigator, also said there were 11 confirmed dead.
County Sheriff Tom McCort, who said he was running the recovery effort, said 51 people in Shadysville and adjacent Meade Township were missing as of 8:45 p.m.
Officials from Ohio, West Virginia and the U.S. Coast Guard were searching the Ohio River for survivors and bodies, and National Guardsmen were to continue searching the creeks throughout the night.
The National Weather Service issued no flood warning before the disaster, although it did issue a flood watch, said Al Wheeler, deputy meteorologist in the bureau's Cleveland office.
Thursday night's thunderstorms caused flash flooding across a wide area of central and eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. The floods closed roads, damaged homes and forced hundreds of people to evacuate.
But no place was hit with anything approaching the ferocity of the flooding in Shadyside.
About 5.5 inches of rain fell between 7:30 p.m. and 11 p.m., turning two Ohio River tributaries outside the village of 4,300 people into dangerous torrents.
About 35 buildings, including a tavern, were damaged along Wegee Creek, and 50 buildings were hit by a flood along Pipe Creek, four miles south of Wegee Creek, said Dick Quinlin, Belmont County emergency services coordinator.
One man in the tavern was found clinging to a bar stool, said state Sen. Robert Ney, whose district includes Shadyside.
"I've never seen anything of this magnitude. There was no warning," Ney said.
by CNB