Extreme Weather in USA on June 24 2016 14 Dead in West Virginia Flooding, Homes Damaged

Virginia's governor has declared a state of emergency in Alleghany County and Covington after severe weather and flooding. Gov. Terry McAuliffe tweeted Thursday night that a state of emergency has been declared, allowing state agencies to bypass some time-consuming procedures to quickly help local governments. Residents of downtown Covington, as well as low-lying areas of the city, were evacuated Thursday night to established shelters, WDBJ reported. Evacuations were ordered as the Jackson River neared record levels. Roads were closed and several house fires were sparked by lightning as the storms pushed through the Commonwealth. According to the Roanoke Times, a handful of roads were closed by flooding in Covington and Alleghany County, and a few other roads were shut down in Botetourt County, the state Department of Transportation said. House fires were blamed on lightning in Read Mountain, Goode and Thaxton, the report added. No injuries were reported in those incidents.

Seven people were killed, including a toddler, after powerful storms swamped West Virginia on Thursday night, cutting power and plunging hundreds of thousands of people into darkness. The search for 4-year-old Edward McMillion ended in heartbreak after officials said Friday that they found his body. The boy had vanished in the rising waters in Ravenswood, Jackson County, which sits along the Ohio River on the Ohio border. Three other deaths occurred in Kanawha County, while a another death occurred in Ohio County in West Virginia's northern panhandle, the governor's office said. Authorities in Greenbrier County announced Friday afternoon that two males were also found dead - bringing the death toll up to seven. Officials did not immediately identify the victims, although local reports said one of those killed in Ohio County was an 8-year-old who had slipped into a creek and was carried away. He later died at a hospital, The Intelligencer reported. Meanwhile, an elderly man was killed in the floodwaters in Kanawha County, while a woman there was washed away in her vehicle in another incident, NBC affiliate WSAZ reported. In one dramatic scene in White Sulphur Springs in the state's south, where up to 10 inches of rain fell Thursday, the flood waters pushed a burning home down the Howard Creek. Forty-four counties, primarily in the southeastern part of the state, were under a state of emergency Thursday night because of flood waters, emergency officials said. Electric utilities reported that almost 500,000 customers were without power. "We surely need your prayers because there's a lot of people hurting right now," Jim Justice, owner of the luxury Greenbrier Resort, told The Weather Channel. Kanawha County was especially inundated, and dozens of water rescues were under way in and around Clendenin, where numerous roads were closed by racing flood waters, WSAZ said. "There's been a ton of areas that have been hit hard" by as much as 7 inches of rain, said Danielle Banks, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. Mark Burgess, wife Lisa and parents-in-law Bill and Peggy Lucas were occupying the second floor of their home in Elkview when the waters started rising at around 1:30 am ET. Mark Burgess told NBC News on Friday morning there was about four feet of water, "but it has stopped going up now." He said it was the first time that residents have witnessed such flooding. "My mother-in-law has lived here for 80 years, and this never happened before," he said. "There is nothing you can do," he added. "We can call for help if it's too deep, but it's OK right now."