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23 dead in West Virginia floods: 'We have lost almost entire towns'

Authorities have stepped up search and rescue operations after torrential rains caused the state's worst flooding in more than a century.
Photo by Steve Helber/AP

At least 23 people are dead after torrential rains in West Virginia caused the state's worst flooding in more than a century. Authorities have stepped up search and rescue operations, and West Virginia's governor asked on Saturday for a federal major disaster declaration in three devastated counties.

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin said he made an expedited verbal request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to aid Kanawha, Greenbrier, and Nicholas counties, which were severely damaged by flooding that started with heavy rains on Thursday.

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Tomblin said the state would follow up with requests for other counties that also sustained significant damage. The scope of damage in those three counties allowed him to make the request immediately, he said in a statement.

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A FEMA team is expected to arrive on Saturday to assess the damage in West Virginia where more than 32,000 homes and businesses still were without power.

"We have lost almost entire towns in some cases," said Tim Rock, spokesman for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. "There are going to be a lot of rebuilding, a lot of people without homes, a lot of businesses destroyed."

Video footage posted online showed surging floodwaters washing away a building as it went up in flames, submerging entire neighborhoods, and generally wreaking havoc.

The death toll in West Virginia is the highest in any state from flooding this year. At least 16 people, including nine US soldiers, were killed in flooding in Texas earlier in June.

Up to 10 inches of rain fell on Thursday in the mountainous state, sending torrents of water from rivers and streams through homes causing widespread devastation.

Tomblin has declared a state of emergency in 44 of 55 counties and deployed 200 members of the West Virginia National Guard on Friday to help rescue efforts.

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Some towns have been completely surrounded by water, hundreds of houses and buildings have been lost and at least hundreds of people forced to take emergency shelter, Rock said.

The hardest-hit area was Greenbrier County in southeast West Virginia, where 15 deaths have been reported and the heaviest rain fell, state officials said.

West Virginia received one-quarter of its annual rainfall in a single day and multiple rivers surged to dangerous levels, including the Elk River, which broke a record at one stage that had stood since 1888.

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