From the Report by Ryan Decker, WBOY 12 News, October 11, 2018

ROWLESBURG, W.Va. – West Virginia Route 72, also known as River Road, is one of the more heavily traveled roads in Preston County.

Some residents are in danger of losing the ability to use that road.

River Road is nearly taking on a literal meaning. The two-laned main road in and out of Rowlesburg and other towns in Rreston county is on the verge of being unusable in a spot less than three miles outside of Rowlesburg.

“A couple weeks ago we got some pretty good rains. So that’s opened it up to where there’s a five or six foot section just completely out. And the crack itself is opened up to eight, ten, twelve inches wide, and it’s slowly starting to creep across the road, as well,” said John Crippin, Fellowsville resident.

The problem is getting worse. The changes in the road are happening quickly, with weather and constant travel on the road not helping the issue.

Some of the photos attached to the story were taken less than three weeks before the airing of this story, and as you see the road has gotten significantly worse, falling further off the side of what was the road into Cheat River.

Residents were told permanent road repairs aren’t scheduled to take place until 2019.

“Spring 2019 is what we’re looking for right now. we’ll see what happens over the winter. that’s what really makes me nervous. is that it’s going to fall even more,” said Miranda Snyder, Rowlesburg resident.

A District 4 Division of Highways crew recently put in a culvert, widened the road and installed temporary stoplights. However th road is effectively just one lane at that spot.

From Rowlesburg, Route 72 connects the town to multiple schools and Preston Memorial Hospital. If the road continues to collapse before a permenant fix can be made next year, it could cause serious problems.

“It’s the main through fare from this area to Kingwood. So if that road would fall in you would have to re-route and go all the way around Tunnelton or go up through Terra Alta. Yeah the hospital’s that way, so if something would happen and the road would fall through — accident-wise — ambulance, fire trucks would have to go all the way around to get there,” said Snyder.

The road is still usable in that spot for now, but drivers should be cautious when driving on the road near that slip.

https://www.wboy.com/news/preston/road-patrol-route-72-in-rowlesburg/1517469492

From Stanford University, September 15, 2018

Atmospheric scientist Morgan O’Neill discusses what’s driving Hurricane Florence, why it’s unusual, and how it could be connected to climate change and other storms brewing in the Atlantic.

Hurricane Florence began pummeling North Carolina with drenching rains, powerful winds, and the threat of catastrophic flooding after making landfall in the early hours of Friday, September 14. Moving inland at a dangerous crawl, the storm could dump up to 40 inches of rain in some parts of the Carolina coast and drive ocean water into storm surges taller than 10 feet if it strikes at high tide.

Hurricane Florence is the largest of four big storms now brewing in the Atlantic. “This is an extraordinarily active month – not just for the Atlantic, which we tend to think of because of its concentration of American cities, ports and industry, but also the Pacific,” said atmospheric scientist Morgan O’Neill, a professor of Earth system science in the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). Super Typhoon Mangkhut is now barreling toward the Philippines, and Japan is only beginning to recover from Typhoon Jebi, the strongest typhoon to make landfall there in 25 years.

O’Neill explains how simultaneous hurricanes can be connected, why Hurricane Florence is following an unusual track through the Atlantic, and why flash floods are a particularly grave threat with this storm.

How does this season’s activity compare to a normal year?

MORGAN O’NEILL: Early September is the climatologically most active period for the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Atlantic as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This year is so far much more active than an average hurricane season.

Storms get named once their peak wind speed reaches 39 mph or greater, and this is the first time in a decade that the Atlantic has four simultaneous “named” storms: Florence, Helene, Isaac and Joyce.

The Pacific is similarly expected to be active from late-August to early-September. This year it has been not just active, but brutal. Typhoon Jebi made landfall in Japan last week, causing widespread, serious damage, and Typhoon Mangkhut is driving evacuations in the Philippines before its anticipated landfall at speeds equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. The Pacific typically has larger, stronger, better organized and more deadly storms, and the western Pacific is the most active region for tropical cyclones on the planet.

Source: https://earth.stanford.edu/news/hurricane-florence-science-behind-storm