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CNN Live At Daybreak

Floods Wash Over Parts of West Virginia

Aired July 10, 2001 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Houses, mobile homes, cars, trucks, even a post office were washed away in the flash floods that washed over southern West Virginia. One woman is dead and the damage now exceeds $20 million and downtown Kimball, West Virginia is all but gone in a -- in a flood.

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: And many of those West Virginians are returning this morning to their damaged and mud-filled homes.

CNN's Jeff Flock is in one of the hardest hit areas, which is Fayette County. He joins us there live right now.

Jeff, how is it this morning?

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Colleen, this is the teeny town of Weston and perhaps you can judge after yourself, if you look. This used to be somebody's house right off here.

Maybe you can hear the man out there with a chainsaw already beginning the business of repairing and cleaning up. His house is on back in the distance and he was one of the fortunate ones. The water came by the outside, didn't do any damage there, but if you take a look at this, this is his neighbor's house and I -- if we're able to give a wide pan here, perhaps you see where this house wound up. And then if you look on down there, you see where it started out.

And this is just characteristic of a lot of the stuff that took place here. Homes ripped from their foundations -- a portion of this home, anyway, and then deposited on down here. A total of about 3,000 homes damaged. That's the estimate right now and who knows, before it is done, that could even increase as well. About 1,000 National Guard troops are out here now to try and help put this all back together, but the governor, himself, says it is going to be months before they get all of this debris picked up.

You got boards and insulation and siding and all of that sort of thing, just associated with this house. And I don't know, a sight, if you're able to see it off in the distance, fellow with a brand new 2002 Chevy Blazer, back there in the creek somewhere. He just brought it home, we are told, before the flood and now it is upside down and he talked about his insurance papers is unfortunately, the insurance papers are in the glove box. So I don't know if he's going to be retrieving those out of there anytime soon. We'll keep an eye on it though. Quite a mess here in the central part of southern West Virginia. Colleen, back to you.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, that truck is part of the landscape. Thanks very much Jeff, appreciate it.

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