At least 14 people have died in widespread flooding in West Virginia, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said today in the wake of storms that hit some parts of the state with ten inches of rain. A state of emergency has been declared in 44 of West Virginia’s 55 counties.
The Elk River north of Charleston was measured at 33 feet, higher than it’s been since at least 1888; an estimated 500 people were trapped overnight in a shopping center in the area when a bridge was washed out. (As of earlier this afternoon about 50 of those individuals had been evacuated.)
