UPDATE (11:54 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 1): The West Virginia Division of Highways is on the scene repairing the road that has trapped residents following Monday’s flooding, Boone County Emergency Management told 13 News.

BOONE COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – A community in Boone County says they are trapped in their homes after Monday’s floods tore up their road.

It happened on Three Fork Road in Seth. Neighbors say the floodwaters tore up the three-quarter mile road, and washed out at least three culverts from the creek. 

Brenda Harper says she and her neighbors are stranded.

“We are trapped. We are literally trapped,” Harper said. “We can’t get out to get groceries, go to the doctor, we can’t do anything.”

There are three ways in and out of the neighborhood: ATV, bike, or by foot. But some residents cannot get out of their front yards without stepping down in the creek since their bridges were also washed out. 

Parents living on Three Fork Road say they have to walk their kids all the way down the hollow to get them to school every morning.

Carl Workman is one of the men who live on the road, and he says in 47 years of living there, he has never experienced anything as catastrophic as this.

“The creek started to get up,” Workman said, referring to Monday’s flooding. “My wife came in the house and I said, ‘How’s the creek and she said alright but I said you better get back out there, then a flash flood comes through here.’”

The West Virginia Department of Highways sent a statement to 13 News saying in part that they cannot work on fixing Three Fork Road at this time because it is considered a private road. They claim it would be against the law to repair a road with public state taxpayer money.