feature
By Nancy Maddox, MPH, writer
On June 23, 2016, the skies opened over West Virginia. As much as 10 inches
of rain inundated parts of the state in less than 24 hours—a once-in-1,000
years rainfall.
“We did get a little bit of a notice that
there would be flooding, but nobody
realized it would be as bad as it was,” said
Greg Young, the environmental chemistry
supervisor for the West Virginia Office of
Laboratory Services. A local news crew
happened to set up a reporting station
about five miles north of the laboratory.
And, “by accident,” because they were
watching the news, Young and colleagues
learned that a wall of water was heading
their way.
By 11 am, the water arrived. A low spot
about half a mile from the facility quickly
filled and overflowed, blocking access
to the interstate and bringing muddy
floodwaters within a foot of the laboratory
parking lot. “We had no issues with
flooding,” said Young. “But that was the
closest I’ve seen it.”
Other areas were not so lucky. The Elk
River crested at an all-time high of 33.4
feet above flood stage. Twenty-six people
were killed in flash floods. And the tiny
city of Clendenin was literally “wiped out.”
In an odd turn of fate, the devastating
deluge had little impact on laboratory
operations. Floodwater stranded
one microbiologist at her home, and
requests for well water testing rose
only 4% over the next couple months.
Because the damage in hard-hit areas
was so complete, Young said, “there was
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no house, no well, with water to test.
Everything was just gone.”
Even though the facility survived
unscathed, Young said, “We’re now
looking at the cost of replacing all our
equipment and seeing if we have enough
insurance to cover that.”
2016, as it turns out, was a record year for
flooding. In addition to the West Virginia
calamity, the US had 18 other severe
flood events, more than any year since
recordkeeping began in 1980. In Louisiana,
for example, a no-name storm dropped
more than 20 inches of water across
several parishes—7.1 trillion gallons in
all (three times as much as Hurricane
Katrina), constituting another 1,000-year
downpour.
Yet Mother Nature has not let up. The
hyperactive 2017 Atlantic hurricane
season spawned 17 named storms,
including ten back-to-back hurricanes—
yet another record. Two hurricanes—
Irma and Maria—reached Category 5
status, with winds in excess of 157 miles
per hour.
According to a study by the National
Center for Atmospheric Research (funded
by the National Science Founda tion
and US Army Corps of Engineers), the
volume of rainfall from mesoscale
convective systems (MCSs)—storm
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