4 days ago
3 More Victims Identified in West Virginia Flooding, Bringing Death Toll to 9
The authorities in northern West Virginia have recovered the bodies of the three people reported missing after flash floods tore through the region earlier this month, raising the confirmed death toll to nine, the Ohio County Sheriff's Office said on Thursday.
The Sheriff's Office identified the victims on Thursday as Sandra Parsons, 83, and Jesse Pearson, 43, both of Triadelphia, and Connie Veronis, 71, of Moundsville.
The recovery of the bodies brought an end to a search that gripped Triadelphia, a town of about 900 people, in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, according to census data. Seven of the nine people killed were from there, Sheriff Nelson Croft of Ohio County said in an interview.
The flooding began on June 14 about 8 p.m., when a powerful rainstorm swept across Ohio County, about 50 miles west of Pittsburgh. About 2.5 to four inches of rain fell in just 30 minutes, quickly overwhelming the region's narrow valleys, according to the Wheeling-Ohio County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
All the deaths happened near U.S. Route 40, also known as National Road, where several small streams run through the area, Sheriff Croft said.
'It's a densely populated area in a narrow valley,' Sheriff Croft said. 'We had so much loss because the water had nowhere to go.'
Among the dead were Ms. Veronis and her husband, Michael Veronis, 74, of Moundsville. The couple had been visiting Triadelphia when their vehicle was overwhelmed by rising water. Mr. Veronis was found days later inside the vehicle. Mrs. Veronis had been swept away, and it took the authorities longer to locate her body, Sheriff Croft said.
