Dried out and fed up: Huntington residents still seek action on flood mitigation

“I would stay here [until] the day I die, and my wife does not want to move,� Ransbottom said. “But she knows we [have] to deal with it and we’re too old to do it anymore.�

Ransbottom has lived through several floods since moving into his house. The May 2022 flood was the worst, he said. That weather event filled his basement with 6½ feet of water and destroyed $50,000 worth of tools, a $9,000 motorcycle and other belongings, he said.

Ransbottom said he still remembers opening the door to his basement. He could only step down on the first step while he watched his belongings swirl in the water. Over the years, Ransbottom said, he lost five cars to flooding and had to replace his garage door several times.

Ransbottom said he tries to monitor the creek when it’s raining, but it can be difficult to tell how high the water gets because of the overgrown vegetation. Having a park and tennis courts nearby his home was a great selling point to a tennis player like Ransbottom, who would visit frequently to play with friends.

A stroke he had approximately seven years ago has made it hard for him to do all the things he once loved and maintain his property.

“We had some fun through the years,� Ransbottom said. “Enjoyed the house and then when we had more and more floods, it became a pain.�

Before he moved in, Ransbottom did research on the house. His search did not identify previous flooding, he said.

The house has been on the market for six months. Two potential buyers had been interested but ultimately walk away. Ransbottom and his wife, Mary Ransbottom, moved out of their house in July and into a senior living community.

A continued threat of damage

Five months after the Feb. 6, Ann Amsbury is just now looking into replacing the duct work underneath her house. Amsbury said she was afraid her neighborhood would flood again, so she waited.

“You’re hesitant to spend a lot more money, not knowing what’s going to happen next,� Amsbury said.

This is the third time she has to replace the duct work in the nine and a half years she’s lived in her house in the Enslow Park neighborhood.

The house was built by her relatives in 1955. Amsbury said she loves the home, which was designed to be accessible and “senior friendly� and holds memories with loved ones.

Amsbury got about 5 inches of water across the entire first floor of her house in 2022, she said. The flood affected her living room, den, kitchen, dining room and two bedrooms. Workers had to take out all the flooring and tear out walls because of mildew. She was out of her home for four months. Insurance covered her hotel stay.

The Feb. 6 flood only came up under her house, but it caused damage to her duct work.

The frequent floods have made several nearby neighbors move or put their house on the market, Amsbury said. Many of them have also talked about the buyout process. Amsbury said she loves her house and her neighborhood and doesn’t want to see it “destroyed� by flooding.

“It’s senior friendly,� Amsbury said. “Everything about it is just perfect for me and it’s a nice home and no, I don’t want to move. The people across the street, they just put in their second or third furnace. I mean, people would rather repair and stay here, but there’s that threat.�

Amsbury described the vegetation around Fourpole Creek as a jungle and wondered if there is any way the city could clear any of it up.

“To me, it’s just so sad to see nice neighborhoods where I know that there are a lot of long-term things that need to be done and thought about, but what can be done in the immediate time right now so we don’t lose these entire neighborhoods?� Amsbury said.

In 2022, about 2 inches of rain fell in the upper part of the watershed, Anita Walz, a Marshall University associate professor of geography, said in a study she conducted about the rain event, “When it rains...it pours...and...Huntington floods!� The flooding in May 2022 was the second large-scale flooding event to occur in Huntington within nine months.

The flood was called a “once in a generation� event by National Weather Service officials. First responders, city Public Works crews and employees of the Huntington Water Quality Board had to rescue residents and their pets from flooded homes.

Enslow Park and the Southside neighborhoods are two of the most susceptible in Huntington for flash flooding because they are along Fourpole Creek, said Bryan Chambers, Huntington Water Quality communications director, in an Feb. 6 email.

“The Fourpole Creek watershed is larger than the City of Huntington’s geographical footprint, and it extends well beyond city limits,� Chambers said. “Any rainfall that falls in the watershed eventually makes its way to the creek. Parts of the creek can serve as a bottleneck as it winds through those neighborhoods and the West End on its way to the Ohio River.�

Some of the flooding residents endure is from the old infrastructure and combined sewer of the city’s system and is caused by infrastructure backups.

‘We need some action’

Although residents say the 2025 flood was not as bad as the 2022 flood, some residents still had property damage.

Bill Fredeking, 66, has lived on Wilson Court his entire life. His house, across from the bridge that welcomes people into the southern end of the Enslow Park neighborhood, is falling apart. It’s a boxed-in part of the neighborhood with only one way in and out.

Fredeking has experienced flooding eight times. In 2022 and 2025, floodwater got into his house and garage; During other events, water just got into his garage. Fredeking has had to replace eight washers and dryers, eight water heaters, two refrigerators in the garage and one in his house.

Inside his home, the aftermath of May 6, 2022, still lingers. The furniture in his living room covers two holes in the floor, and his bathroom floor is soft to the touch. The remnants of the muddy water still cake his garage walls, and the home’s HVAC system is still broken.

Fredeking said he got 6 inches in his home in the Feb. 6, flood and slightly more in his garage.

In his childhood, Fredeking does not remember flooding being an issue. The flooding he does remember only affected what he called the “low point� of the neighborhood in the southern end.

“We never had any floods until they built the access road to the highway,� Fredeking said. “That was 1970. Once they built the access road, the first six floods, honestly, were because this bridge set so low.�

Fredeking said the first six floods were due to the bridge beside his house, which is so low that it would become a dam.

Fredeking described the 2022 flood as “violent.� It swept his car under the bridge. Water filled his garage, causing damage to his washer, dryer and hot water tank. His house got 16-24 inches of water, he said.

“That’s 95% of my life,� Fredeking said as he replayed a video of himself walking through the water in his house. “The only things I saved were that kitchen table and chairs, because they’re wood, and that china cabinet, because it was wood, they were able to dry and I saved them.�

Fredeking said he was also able to save his bed frame.

While Huntington did not receive FEMA assistance in 2022 as a whole, Fredeking said the agency told him he qualified for $43,000 — assistance he is still waiting on three years later.

Fredeking said he is disappointed in state and local officials for how flooding in the neighborhood has been addressed in the past.

“We have all talked about it and they have all talked about it, but it’s all talk so far and we just really need some action,� said Patty Kopp, who has lived on Washington Boulevard for 19 years.

Her first experience with flooding was in 2016, when 14 inches of water got into her basement. While she had a sump pump, it quit working.

Kopp said the flooding problem in the area took her by surprise. Then, in 2022, Kopp and her husband Rick lost everything in their basement.

“The water came so fast and so hard it crashed in all of our basement windows,� Kopp said.

The family lost all of the “guts� of the basement, which includes their HVAC system, hot water tank and electrical panels, as well as family valuables and heirlooms they thought were safe.

“I did have flood insurance, so that helped, but you cannot replace your valuables that you thought were in a safe area of your home,� Kopp said. “Once that sewer water and flood water comes in, it destroys everything.�

Kopp and her husband were without air conditioning from May 2022 until September of that year, she said.

Kopp said she has been to many meetings on flooding in the neighborhood and still nothing substantial has been done over the years.

Huntington’s flood mitigation plan

In controlling and preventing flooding, news releases issued by the City of Huntington last month outlined flood prevention measures such as removal of debris along Fourpole Creek.

Huntington Communications Director Evan Lee said the city performed a large-scale clean-up effort between Feb. 7-20 with heavy equipment that yielded nine dump trucks worth of material.

When asked how often the city removes debris from Fourpole Creek, Lee said, “We’ve done continuous maintenance since, following storms, but I don’t have the tracking on-hand.�

Other mitigation plans include:

• Retention pond restoration
• Emergency and permanent evacuation routes in Enslow Park
• A new stream gauge for real-time alerts
• Continuous catch basin cleanings to keep stormwater flowing
• An Army Corps of Engineers watershed study

The city is also continuing projects that have been in the works for several years, including sewer and wastewater projects by the Huntington Sanitary Board and bridge replacement projects in Huntington.

The city hosted the West Virginia Emergency Management Division in March to give residents information on hazard mitigation projects, applications and buyout processes.

FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program provides funding to governments so they can develop hazard mitigation plans and rebuild in a way that reduces future disaster losses in their communities, said Lora Lipscomb, public information officer with the West Virginia Emergency Management Division.

The grant funding is available after a presidentially declared disaster, Lipscomb said. The program does not allow homeowners and businesses to apply for a grant themselves; however, a local community may apply for funding on their behalf, she said.

The meeting took place this winter after the February flood. Huntington reported 35 participant forms resulting from the event, Lipscomb said.

“The city is currently reviewing those forms and will use them to create applications for submission to the state,� Lipscomb said.

Huntington has submitted applications for mitigation projects, including a flood early warning system, a study on floodwall pump stations and a solar panel project, she said.

Lee did not respond when asked for information about the solar panel project.