On Friday, June 30, Inside Appalachia host Jessica Lilly visited Richwood to speak with residents about the devastating flooding that began the previous day. She recorded the stories of two men who worked to get the residents out alive.
On June 23, massive flooding swept across most of West Virginia. It began with a rare event- a tornado touched down in Nicholas County, West Virginia on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 21.
Regional rain storms followed but nothing like what started to fall throughout a 22-county region on Thursday, June 23. By 7 p.m., the governor had declared a state of emergency in 44 counties. Within a tragic 24-36 hour period, at least 23 people had perished. Thousands of homes were flooded, many of them destroyed. There were stories of terror and heroism that came out of this flood.
In Richwood, workers and volunteers rescued almost 100 people from the Nicholas County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Thursday afternoon.