Flash flooding frequency on sharp rise in Kanawha County, throughout WV as climate warms

Having to recover slowly from quick-hitting flooding has become an increasingly frequent challenge throughout West Virginia — and especially in Kanawha County.

West Virginia suffered 380 flash flood events from 2019 through 2023, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data — an average of one in every 4.8 days.

Those flash flood events marked a 26% increase over the 301 the NOAA recorded in the previous five-year span, a 51% climb over the 252 recorded from the five-year span before that and a 169% rise from the 141 recorded from 2004 through 2008.

Flash floods caused 24 deaths and over $98 million in property damage, according to the NOAA. 

Flash floods are caused by heavy rainfall in a short period of time, usually under six hours.

West Virginia’s flash flood frequency more than doubling in the past two decades reflects the harsh reality of climate change, with a warmer atmosphere containing and dumping more water.

That spells trouble in West Virginia, with narrow valleys and steep slopes made more flood-prone by removal of land cover like vegetation that controls runoff to accommodate generations of coal mining and other extractive industries.

Most of Kanawha County is in the 90th percentile or higher in flood risk.

Of Kanawha County’s 65 flash flood events from 2004 through 2023, 33 occurred in 2019 or later, per NOAA data. Of those 33, 18 came in 2022 or 2023.

West Virginia faces a future of flooded critical infrastructure.

Over 423,000 properties in West Virginia have greater than a 26% chance of being severely impacted by flooding over the next 30 years — a third of all state properties — according to Risk Factor, a tool created by the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that quantifies climate risks.

More than half of West Virginia’s critical infrastructure — including fire, police and power stations — is at risk of becoming inoperable due to flooding, according to a 2021 First Street Foundation study. That’s more than any other state.

Flooding assured but not insured throughout West Virginia

Compounding West Virginia’s flood problem is especially low uptake of insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, the Federal Emergency Management Agency-managed program that provides flood insurance to property owners, renters and businesses.

Homeowners insurance typically doesn’t cover flood damage. In Special Flood Hazard Areas, buying flood insurance is mandatory. A FEMA spokesperson encouraged anyone living in or near a Special Flood Hazard Area to buy insurance but said it’s only required by lenders when a property has a federally backed mortgage.

In West Virginia, just 12% of residential properties in Special Flood Hazard Areas have flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program as of last year, according to FEMA — well below the national clip of 40%.

West Virginia’s poverty level — fifth-highest nationally from 2019 to 2021 — and high concentration of flood-prone areas make flood insurance hard to afford but risky to live without for many in the state.

The average yearly current cost of National Flood Insurance Program insurance for state residents as of September 2022 was $1,133, eighth-highest in the country. But West Virginia’s average risk-based cost of insurance of $3,074 was the nation’s highest.

Risk-based cost of insurance is what policyholders would pay if they were responsible for their full actuarial rate as evaluated under the rates implemented per a new FEMA insurance pricing methodology, Risk Rating 2.0. The new methodology was implemented in 2021.

When a policyholder’s current premium is below their risk-based premium, their premium will rise toward the full rate, meaning West Virginia’s federal flood insurance premiums are poised to keep escalating.

Rates can’t increase by more than 18% per year for most policyholders by law.

No flood trust funding to trust in

But while West Virginians can trust their flood risk will keep escalating, they can’t yet trust in a fund set up by a law the state Legislature passed last year.

Senate Bill 677 created the Flood Resiliency Trust Fund to prioritize nature-based flood protection and prevention solutions for low-income areas with a potential — but not required — $40 million allocation.

At least half of all funds spent through the Flood Resiliency Trust Fund and the previously existing Disaster Recovery Trust Fund would have to benefit low-income areas or households. At least a quarter of those disbursements would have to be used to buy residences in areas currently or projected to be subjected to significant floods, to assist residents relocating outside the floodplain, and for floodplain restoration activities on properties acquired through the fund.

But the Legislature hasn’t contributed any money toward the fund.

State Resiliency Officer Bob Martin told the Joint Legislative Funding Committee during a December 2023 interim legislative session his office probably could execute projects if it had what it was looking for in federal or state support, noting there was no money in either the flood resiliency fund or the Disaster Recovery Trust Fund.

House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, cited guarding against a potential $465 million federal clawback from the federal Department of Education as the reason a $50 million allotment for the state flood resiliency trust fund was omitted from the House budget bill passed this month.

Under Martin, the state has been working on a flood resiliency plan to replace its flood protection plan last updated in 2004 — when the state’s flash flooding frequency was far less than it is now.

U.S. Department of Education officials told the Gazette-Mail they don’t foresee recouping funding from the state.

Gov. Jim Justice’s office said Thursday he would place a $50 million allocation to the trust fund on the agenda for an upcoming special session that he said during a news briefing Wednesday likely would take place in late May.

Justice had called for the Legislature to provide the funding in his final State of the State address in January and criticized the Legislature for not yet approving it during his briefing Wednesday.

House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, asserted in a statement Wednesday that Justice could dispose of money from a state civil contingency fund as he wishes to address recent flooding impacts. Justice’s office maintained in its statement Thursday the civil contingency fund is to be used for “purposes outlined by the Legislature during the appropriation process,� including jail and prison maintenance.

Justice has been heavily criticized for his administration using $28.3 million the state had been allotted in federal COVID relief funding to reimburse itself for previously incurred corrections expenses totaling that amount. Justice’s administration put the $28.3 million in a Governor’s Office-controlled discretionary account at the federal Sept. 30, 2022, deadline to spend that funding on COVID relief.

The Justice administration spent $10 million of the $28.3 million on a new baseball stadium for Marshall University in October 2022, making that payment five days after the $28.3 million was transferred to the Governor’s Office-controlled account.

As West Virginia’s leaders fight over flood funding, the state’s floodwaters and high safety and economic stakes tied to them keep rising.

“Now, West Virginia lawmakers have a unique opportunity to support Gov. Justice’s resilience funding proposal and help the state meet the challenges of current and future flood risk,� Pew Charitable Trusts U.S. conservation senior officer Mathew Sanders wrote in a February article published by the public policy organization that worked on SB 677. “Investing in solutions now will spare communities and families significant costs — and heartache — for decades to come.�