Strong storms cause flood fears in US midwest

WOWK (West Virginia): A strong storm system plowed into Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia late Friday prompting a Flood Watch across most of the 13 News viewing area overnight. Several hundred AEP customers did suffer power outages due to downed trees from a combination of wind gusts and soggy ground.

A quick inch of rain fell in the span of an hour and high water was seen in the Huntington where the city viaducts were once again closed after flooding. Spring Valley Drive in Wayne County was temporarily closed due to concerns over high water and several wrecks were reported on I-64 during the peak of the storm activity. High water was also reported by the National Weather Service around the Pikeville, KY area.

Stormtracker 13 Chief Meteorologist Spencer Adkins says this is the same storm system that left homes damaged in places from Kansas through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky before reaching our region at about 6pm. One gust associated with this storm was clocked at roughly 100 miles per hour in Carbondale, Illinois according to published reports. Tens of thousands of people across the Midwest are without power and according to the Associated Press, the storm accounts for four deaths.

The main storm threat changed from wind damage to flooding for the 13 News viewing area which has already seen flooding once this week with still-saturated grounds a big problem. Flash Flood Warnings were posted in several counties in Eastern Kentucky throughout the night with several locations reporting water over the road and some mud slides were reported in Floyd and Pike counties.

"We may have a few showers left Saturday morning, but nothing like the pounding rains we had right around dinner time on Friday," said Adkins. "Still, I'd watch for some high water in poor drainage areas and smaller streams and creeks."…

A generic thunderstorm shot from NOAA