West Virginia floods have killed 23 people, including a toddler


Massive flooding in West Virginia on Friday left tens of thousands without power, hundreds stranded overnight, and killed at least 23 people, including a 4-year-old boy who went missing as waters rose near the state's Ohio border.
The National Guard has been deployed in eight counties to help with relief efforts following heavy rains the National Weather Service called a "one-in-a-thousand-year event." West Virginians are warned that additional rain showers and overflowing rivers still pose a real risk. In one town, high water caused a burning house to drift downstream.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said rescuers are prioritizing those still trapped in homes, stores, and cars, and urged his state to "continue to work together and support each other as West Virginians always do."
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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