Photo by Scott McCloskey Cameron residents pile ruined furniture outside their homes after torrential rains led to severe flooding in the area.

CAMERON — Monday afternoon’s heavy storms persisted into the evening, dumping nearly half a foot of water in some parts of Marshall County. And as Monday turned into Tuesday, Cameron found itself among the communities hit hardest.

Marshall County Director of Emergency Management Tom Hart said that between 2.25 and 5 inches of rain fell Monday, afflicting the southeastern and south-central parts of the county hardest. Rainwater flooded numerous residents’ houses, municipal buildings, and school facilities, causing extensive damage that was still being evaluated into the middle of the week.

“As of (3 p.m. Monday), there’s city and county teams doing damage assessments. They started those this afternoon, and will continue to do so as needed,” Hart said. “They’re trying to hit as many places as they can today. … Right now, it’s just been a coordination between the city, county, the health department, Marshall County Schools.”

Elsewhere, Hart said Moundsville Plaza experienced significant flooding, as well as Fish Creek Road and Big Grave Creek Road.

“It wasn’t just one location, but Cameron area and southeastern Marshall County took the hardest hit,” Hart said.

At Cameron High School, Hart said the rain damaged the newly laid turf at the school’s football field. At the elementary school, part of the first floor was flooded, as well. School officials will be on hand today to evaluate and begin to repair the damage.

Cameron Mayor Greg Galentine said several roads in the Cameron community remained closed Tuesday due to road slides.

“It was a large amount of rain,” he said. “We had people who had upwards of 3, 4, 5 feet of water in their home. We had roughly 5 feet of water in our city garage.”

The city government wasn’t spared from the flood’s damage, Galentine said.

“We lost our brand new dump truck that we just purchased, our streets and alley truck,” he said. “We lost it due to flooding, and all of our hand tools,” he added.

“But,” he added, “we got a lot of people here working.”

The Marshall County Health Department is making tetanus vaccine available to any residents or workers requiring a shot. Health department employees Vicki Allender and Vicki Earnest administered the shots throughout Tuesday afternoon at the Cameron American Legion Annex building on Bridge Street. The health department will make the vaccine clinic available at the same location from 1-4 p.m. today, according to the mayor.

While flood water does not carry tetanus, first responders, cleanup workers, and others interacting with debris may be at risk of contracting the infection through contact.

State Del. Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall, and State Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, were among those on hand Tuesday afternoon, meeting with locals as cleanup began. Zukoff said the American Red Cross was on site, as well as Appalachian Outreach and a church group from Minnesota who traveled to assist the cleanup efforts.

“The efforts are well underway, they’re going to be picking up the debris that people are putting out to their curb, and trucks will be coming by tomorrow to get more,” Zukoff said. “There’s a lot of work to do. The damage was pretty bad. … There’s a lot to do, but people are out here, like they always are, to help each other get over it.”

Galentine said affected residents should reach out to the city for whatever they need.

“Anything that residents have that has been affected by the flooding — whether it’s carpet, furniture, whatever it is — we ask that they place it at the curb,” he said.

Public service garbage crews will begin removing those items today and Friday this week, and again on Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week.

Gallentine said those needing help should call the city building at 304-686-2366.

“If they need a basement pumped out, reach out to us,” he said. “Whatever you think you need, just reach out to us. We have a lot of resources available right now to help the residents and that’s what we want to do. We want to help get things back to what we consider normal.”

Cameron City Councilwoman Terri Galentine, a lifelong city resident, spent Tuesday helping neighbors with their cleanup efforts on West High Street. She had received water in her basement.

She said she had never seen flooding like this in her city.

“We’re going around and just trying to make sure everybody’s got the proper help they need with cleaning up trash and things like that,” said Terri Galentine. “This has happened more than one time … but this is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”