Patrick Morrisey said travel weather in West Virginia stayed dangerous Wednesday after flooding killed 2 people and forced a statewide response across all 55 counties. He said 310 National Guard personnel had been deployed, including helicopter units, as floodwaters lingered across parts of the state.
He said, “Mother Nature did some real damage to our state,” after severe storms swept across West Virginia and triggered widespread flash flooding on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. The flooding left roads submerged, damaged buildings and pushed emergency crews into search and rescue work across Lewis County, Randolph County and Upshur County.
West Virginia on July 21
Earlier in the day, Morrisey’s office issued a State of Preparedness ahead of the severe weather. Even so, the situation escalated into a Flash Flood Emergency later Tuesday, and the National Weather Service kept that warning in effect until 10:30 p.m. ET.
By Wednesday, the state response had widened. Morrisey said the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources conducted at least 85 water rescues Tuesday, while first responders received hundreds of calls for assistance from the affected counties.
Buckhannon and Upshur County
Upshur County took some of the heaviest rain, with more than 7 inches falling in roughly six hours beginning Tuesday afternoon. Early Wednesday, The City of Buckhannon issued an Immediate Evacuation Order for parts of the city as hazardous conditions escalated quickly.
The order, the rescue count and the Guard deployment show the scale of the response: local evacuations were still underway while state resources were being pushed in from above. For residents in Lewis, Randolph and Upshur counties, the immediate task was staying clear of flooded roads and following evacuation instructions as crews kept working through Wednesday.
The unanswered question now is how many people were still unaccounted for or in immediate danger after the hundreds of rescue calls and evacuations. Morrisey’s update showed the response was still active, not finished.
