10 Dead, Dozens Missing in Ohio Flash Floods

A flash flood sent a wall of water 15 to 20 feet high rampaging through hill communities along the Ohio River, killing at least 10 people and leaving dozens missing, authorities said today.

Two creeks just outside this Ohio River village of 4,300 residents overflowed when thunderstorms dumped about 4 inches of rain Thursday night in about an hour.

“It created a wall of water,” said Jim Williams of the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. “The problem we’re having right now is accounting for the people we can’t find.”

Williams said 40 to 60 people were unaccounted for at midday.

Belmont County’s sheriff’s Sgt. Bart Giesey said 10 people were confirmed dead.

Gov. Richard F. Celeste declared a state of emergency and surveyed the area.

The raging waters knocked homes off their foundations and washed away a bar filled with people in Shadyside, an Appalachian foothill town.

The Shadyside Fire Department set up a command center at the Jefferson Elementary School to coordinate rescue efforts.

Command center spokeswoman Karen Bovek said officials had no complete death toll figure. Authorities were searching for victims in rural areas.

“You’re talking miles and miles of country roads that haven’t been gotten to yet,” she said. “It’s a disaster here.”

Shadyside--about 10 miles south of Wheeling, W.Va.--is in Belmont County, a mostly hilly, rural area in eastern Ohio.

Acting Mayor James Amato said the storms created a deluge that knocked homes off their foundations. “There are a lot of trailers out in this area that got hit,” he said.

Belmont County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Judy Phillips said a Shadyside bar full of people was washed away when water caved in the back wall. Two people were accounted for, she said. But she could offer no estimate of how many were in the bar.

Shadyside Fire Chief Mark Badia said rescuers pulled people from three cars in Wegee Creek, which flows through Shadyside and into the Ohio River.

“I don’t know how to describe it . . . you’ve got to see it to believe it,” Badia said.

There also was flooding in Jefferson County, north of Belmont, and Licking County in central Ohio.

About 200 residents were evacuated from their homes in central Ohio after 3 inches of rain fell in an hour, flooding streets and washing out rural roads.