Odd that no mention of hurricane Camille, but perhaps the incident happened prior to the hurricane
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/about_us...lle/report.htmlThe Virginia Floods
Camille's remnants moved north-northeastward through central Kentucky and eastward through extreme southern West Virginia and southern Virginia. As Camille reached Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, it encountered large masses of moisture-laden air and again became active (OEP 1969). Late Tuesday August 19, the tropical depression produced torrential rainfall that caused flash floods and landslides along the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains and record flooding in Virginia's James River watershed (USACE 1970).
The heavy rains began about 7 p.m. on August 19 and continued without a decrease in intensity for the next eight hours. By 10 p.m., a band of rain and thunderstorms some 40 to 50 miles wide extended in a general east-west orientation from the vicinity of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to Fredericksburg, Virginia (Figure 9). Around midnight, the low-pressure center intensified as it moved eastward into Virginia along a track south of Roanoke and Lynchburg (ESSA, 1969b). Rainfall to the north and east of the low-pressure center increased rapidly along the western slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with more than 10 inches accumulating at Clifton Forge, Virginia. The rainfall continued to intensify on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains until it reached catastrophic proportions (ESSA, 1969b).
The rains, flash floods, and rain-induced landslides accompanying the storm's passage led to the worst natural disaster ever to strike Virginia (Figure 10). Most of the residents of the mountain hollows, hamlets, and towns were asleep during the fatal hours of the storm. Little warning was possible -- only one report of excessive rain was received by the Weather Bureau during the night from a cooperative observer (DeAngelis 1969). Rapidly rising streams and landslides caused by the rainfall not only destroyed homes as the occupants slept, but communication lines and roads were destroyed, preventing downstream inhabitants from being alerted. Large uprooted trees acted as battering rams, crashing through houses and overturning automobiles.
McDowell county is shown as the southern most county is WV. Here is a map showing the location. I couldn't get it to post.