At least three people were killed and several others remained missing Sunday as flash flooding tore through a West Virginia county.
About 2.5 to 4 inches of rain fell in 30 minutes across Ohio County, in the state’s northern panhandle west of Pennsylvania, according to county emergency management director Lou Vargo.
“We had major infrastructure damage to roads, bridges and highways, where we couldn’t respond to a lot of incidents,” Vargo said Sunday at a press conference. “We were delayed in getting there because there was just so much damage.”

The three deceased victims have not been publicly identified. Vargo did not say exactly how many people remained missing Sunday.
Numerous roads were closed due to the floods, according to the fire department in Wheeling, the county’s biggest city. U.S. Route 40 was closed across two different stretches, but Interstate 70 remained open.
More than 2,500 customers in the 40,000-person county did not have power Sunday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us. Vargo said there were numerous natural gas leaks throughout the county that prompted local utilities to cut power for fear of home explosions.
Big Wheeling Creek rose rapidly during the deluge, and the Wheeling Fire Department shared photos of cars and other debris in the creek as it approached multiple road bridges.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrissey declared a state of emergency in the county on Sunday morning.
“State resources are on the ground assisting local officials with search and rescue, including [Department of Natural Resources] and the State Police,” Morrissey wrote in a Facebook post. “More storms are expected in the region today. Please follow all directives from local and state emergency management officials and do not attempt to drive through flooded roads.”
The National Weather Service issued several flash flood warnings for West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania on Sunday. A flood watch stretched from Pittsburgh south through West Virginia and again included Ohio County.
“Focus for heaviest rainfall with scattered storms this afternoon will be generally the [Pittsburgh] metro [and] areas to the south,” the NWS Pittsburgh office wrote on social media. “Isolated heavy rain/flash flooding may still occur outside of this region.”
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