Great Flood of 2001 still shapes McDowell County 25 years later

McDowell County still carries the mark of the 5 to 8 inches of rain that fell on July 8, 2001, when Kimball, Landgraff, Eckman, Welch, Keystone and Norfolk went under water. In a county where steep terrain gives floodwater nowhere to spread out, Elkhorn Creek spilled over its banks along U.S. Route 52, homes were knocked off their foundations, and more than 2,000 homes and businesses were affected.

The flood did not move like a slow rise. Boats were used to reach people stranded on rooftops and in trees, and entire roads, hollows and business districts turned into channels. In McDowell County alone, about 170 homes were destroyed, a level of damage that pushed hundreds of people out of their homes across the region and left some families with no practical way to rebuild where they had lived.

In 2003, FEMA counted nearly $16 million in mitigation money flowing into West Virginia communities after the 2001 and 2002 floods, and 329 properties had been bought out under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. In Landgraff, the Shawnee Bottom acquisition became a mitigation example because keeping that floodplain land open reduced downstream damage in the Elkhorn Creek watershed.

McDowell County was hit by major floods in both 2001 and 2002. On May 2, 2002, the Tug Fork crested at a record 22.10 feet, more than five feet above flood stage, and the 2002 floods and related weather killed four people. FEMA’s Landgraff case study says several inches of rain again fell on the steep slopes around the Elkhorn Creek watershed on June 20, 2010, triggering severe landslides and flooding in McDowell County.