David Ross said his family moved valuables upstairs when the floodwaters started coming through the floor grates in his house. “We ran out of time,” Ross told CNN on Saturday. “We couldn’t get everything up, and when the water started coming into the house, it didn’t stop until we had almost four feet of water on my main floor, and it’s never been that way.”

Ross said the flooding was the worst he’s seen in his 39 years in West Virginia. “It was so fast,” he said. “The rain was relentless.” Rescue crews worked steadily on Saturday to answer emergency calls from residents stranded by fast-moving floodwaters that state officials say have killed at least 23 people. It’s the nation’s highest death toll from flash floods since May 2010, when 27 people died in Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. FULL REPORT


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