Forty-four people had been reported missing by Thursday morning, the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office said as the death toll remained at zero.
Six inches of rain in a few hours on Tuesday caused significant damage in Buchanan County, west Virginia, CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford said. “Combined with the fact that the area is mountainous, rainfall can build up quickly and dangerous water was produced,” he said.
Officials have stressed that not detecting people does not mean they are actually missing. Phone lines are down in the area, making it difficult to contact anyone affected by the flood, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller told CNN on Wednesday.
The count of 44 reflects those loved ones who have not been able to contact them and cases where law enforcement is “trying to reach and locate the person and check their well-being,” he said on Wednesday. Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office in a post on Facebook. .
The storm was swift and overwhelming, with widespread flooding and road closures in a few hours. Radar estimates indicate that 6 inches of rain fell in about four hours starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, which corresponds to a rain event with a 1 in 1,000 chance of happening in a given year.
“We were sitting at that post office here, and the next thing you know, the house is floating around. We thought it would be washed. Two of the houses were washed,” said Seth Owens, a resident of the subsidiary of CNN. WCYB.
The governor of Virginia declared a state of emergency to help with recovery efforts.
As searches continue, the forecast for Thursday and Friday calls for sun, with high temperatures between the 1980s and 1980s, in the face of a slight probability of rain on Saturday that increases on Sunday and Monday, according to the National Weather Service. The damaging storm was one of several that persisted Tuesday night in Kentucky County and parts of West Virginia and Virginia.
This Appalachian region is among the most prone to sudden floods in the country, with many areas also at higher risk due to the growing threat of heavy rains, according to a CNN analysis of a report last year from a non-profit climate research group, First. Carrer Foundation.
The climate crisis is also exacerbating sudden floods, increasing the rate of rain or the amount of rain that falls in a short period of time. A warmer atmosphere may contain more water, making extreme rain events more likely.
The roads “have fallen by the mountain”
Events like this, in which massive amounts of water are spilled over a short period of time, “have increased in frequency and intensity in the southeast,” according to the latest U.S. government’s National Climate Assessment, “and there there is a lot of confidence that they will continue to increase in the future. ”
The National Weather Service issued a sudden flood warning for Buchanan County around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. About two hours later, local officials began reporting widespread flooding and roadblocks.
Dominick Fragoso, who lives in Whitewood, said the water rose up to his kneecaps.
“One of our neighbors’ access roads completely collapsed and fell down the mountain and fell down the creek, ”Fragoso told the station.
The storm system also affected Greenbrier Camp in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where more than 400 people were evacuated Wednesday after more than 8 inches of rain fell, said Perrin Anderson, assistant mayor of government affairs in the county of Sevier.
“Waste and vehicles were washed downstream at the middle tip of the Little Pigeon River from the camp,” Anderson said.
More than 100 homes were damaged in southwest Virginia, said Billy Chrimes, a search and rescue specialist for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
“Access will take time to be restored so we can get in,” Chrimes said.
Roads were blocked by landslides and approaches to bridges were swept away by the storm, he added.
“After the devastation, I want the virgins of Buchanan County to know that we are putting all available resources to help those affected by this storm,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement. “As the rescue and recovery continue, please join me in prayer as we lift up our fellow Virginia victims affected by this tragedy.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story was wrong when torrential rain fell. It was Tuesday.
CNN’s Claudia Dominguez, Brandon Miller and Raja Razek contributed to this report.