Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

With all the rain from this past weekends’ storms, several roads in the Greater Valley Area have been submerged and still are.

West Point road has been closed since Sunday due to tornado damage and flooding.

West Point Mayor Steve Tramell explained how these roads can become submerged after storms.

“A lot of it is it’s springtime, and the storm drains get clogged up with pinestraw and everything else,” Tramell said.

“Eight inches of rain since midnight last night caused a lot of it. The ground is saturated and can’t hold anymore water. The inevitable happens when you get that much rain.”

Tramell also attributed the flooding to the river, which has seen a streamflow today that is 167% of the normal level.

“Our stormwater system is completely full,” Tramell said.

“Everything drains to the river. When the river is as high as it is, it can back up the whole storm drain system. The city almost sits at river level. It’s been a problem for as long as West Point has existed.”

Tramell also explained the timeline for getting roads back open.

“Today we had a number in downtown, and it took about two hours for the water to recede. It all depends on how much rain we’re getting. If we’re getting continuous rain, it won’t go down until that rain stops. It was as high as I’ve seen it in 15-20 years here. It’s just unreal today.”

As for future precautions, the best defense for flooding is clearing the storm drains.

“As the river is coming up like it is, this has been probably the wettest first three months of the year I can remember,” Tramell said.

“We’ve just had too much rain here. There’s just nowhere for that water to go. There’s no drought in West Point this year.”