As dozens of emergency response personnel gathered in Kanawha County’s Metro 911 Center on Wednesday to hold a drill on planning for the arrival of 5 to 9 inches of rainfall from the remnants of a fictional tropical storm, they listened to the latest briefing on the arrival of the very real Hurricane Florence.
Florence’s arrival track has shifted a bit to the south of its previously predicted landfall, meaning that storm’s remnants should arrive in West Virginia later than expected, according to the National Weather Service’s Emergency Manager’s Brief for West Virginia.
The storm is now not expected to sweep into West Virginia until Sunday or Monday, bringing with it widespread rainfall in the 2- to 4-inch range, with slightly higher amounts possible in the extreme southeastern portion of the state. High winds are expected to be a threat only in the state’s higher southern mountains, where gusts of 40 to 50 miles per hour are deemed possible.