Justin Roberts and Kara Delaney wait for their uncle to get their belongings to a safe place. The couple was sitting outside their damaged home along W.Va. 3 in Griffithsville with their dogs.
YAWKEY, W.Va. — Sections of Lincoln County were still underwater Tuesday afternoon after flash flooding from storm after storm, leaving residents scrambling to clean up before more rain.
The Lincoln emergency medical services station in Yawkey lost two ambulances in the flooding, said paramedic John Browning.
“It happened so fast that we couldn’t get the trucks out,” he said.
The water entered the bay of the garage and filled both of the ambulances. Browning said the department is waiting to find out from its insurer the extent of the damage. The paramedics were still working Tuesday afternoon to clean mud out of the garage.
The station brought in two extra ambulances from another station to continue providing coverage to the area.
Tamika Moore of the Duval District Volunteer Fire Department said the volunteers were fortunate enough to save their trucks from the flooding.
With quick thinking, the fire chief and assistant chief rushed to the station at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday and moved the fire trucks to higher ground.
However, the station itself couldn’t be saved from the water.
“We had about 5 inches of dirt, and I mean mud, on our shelves, in our bays, up on our steps, on our ramp — wherever you looked all you see was mud,” Moore said.
Moore said the water rose faster than the department’s ever seen.
“At 3:30 this morning you could see the post office parking lot. By 3:40 when we all got suited up, it was up to the door,” Moore said. “It rose quicker this year than it has in a long time.”
The department had eight calls by 3:30 a.m. Tuesday for water rescue: one car and seven houses, according to Moore.
Kara Delaney and Justin Roberts accounted for one of the seven house rescues…
