CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Heavy rains that pummeled West Virginia left at least 24 people dead, and authorities said Saturday that an unknown number of people in the hardest-hit county remained unaccounted for.
Most of the dead and all of the missing, officials said, were in the county of Greenbrier -- home of the renowned golf resort of the same name.
"The reports we got this morning are that Greenbrier County may still have some folks unaccounted for. It does not appear there are unaccounted-for people in other counties, but it's still a somewhat fluid situation," said Chris Stadelman, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's chief of staff.
Stadelman said there were still "lots of folks in shelters." Scores of homes were damaged.
Tomblin was approved Saturday for a major federal disaster declaration to get help for Greenbrier and the two other counties hardest hit by flooding. Tomblin's office said he made an expedited verbal request Saturday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for individual assistance for Kanawha, Greenbrier and Nicholas counties. Individual assistance includes housing and crisis counseling.
President Barack Obama called Tomblin on Saturday to extend his condolences for the lives lost in the flooding, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement.
The president also directed White House staff to coordinate closely with Tomblin's team to make sure FEMA is providing all appropriate assistance, Schultz said.
The state Division of Homeland Security reported 16 people killed in Greenbrier County, 15 of them in Rainelle. Other deaths were reported in Kanawha, Jackson and Ohio counties. About 500 people were stranded overnight in a shopping center when a bridge washed out, and dozens of other people had to be plucked off rooftops or rescued from their cars.
Six other deaths were reported in Kanawha, in addition to one each in Jackson and Ohio counties.
The state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management also said more than 30,000 homes were still without power.
Some of the heaviest rainfall was in Greenbrier County, where The Greenbrier luxury resort and golf course is nestled in the mountains. The PGA Tour canceled a tournament there from July 4-10 because the course is overrun by floodwaters.
"Cancelling The Greenbrier Classic is certainly the most prudent course of action as our foremost concern is the well-being of those who are having to live through this tragic situation," PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a news release Saturday. "Our thoughts and prayers are with them."
Resort owner Jim Justice said the needs of flood-ravaged West Virginians are of utmost concern. Two health-care facilities at the resort will be open this weekend to provide care for residents.
"All of our focus needs to be on helping all of the people of our great state," Justice said in a news release. "So many have lost loved ones, their homes, and have no place to go."
Rainelle Mayor Andrea "Andy" Pendleton wept as she surveyed the devastated Greenbrier County town Saturday morning.
"I weep for my people, I weep for the businesses," she said.
About six buses full of people whose homes were either without power or too damaged to inhabit were evacuated. Some were taken initially to a fire department facility, but then it flooded, so they were moved to an abandoned store. When that started to flood, buses took the evacuees to a church 40 miles away.
Search-and-rescue teams went house to house, marking those checked with a spray-painted 'X.' Abandoned pets were taken to a shelter. A water department filtration system, built with a $2.6 million loan, was damaged, Pendleton said.
Help came from multiple sources, including two search-and rescue-teams from Virginia.
An area near the West Virginia-Virginia border received at least 9 inches of rain while other parts of the state had 3 to 5 inches, National Weather Service hydrologist John Sikora said. A flood warning remains in effect for Greenbrier County until 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.
In Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe made an emergency declaration for Alleghany County and the city of Covington.
In West Virginia, a woman suffered burns over two-thirds of her body after her deluged house blew up. Belinda Scott of White Sulphur Springs called her husband Ronnie and told him that their house was filling up with water. She fled to the attic and waited. She smelled natural gas. Then, the house exploded.
Belinda Scott broke a vent and got out onto a porch, then made it onto a tree, which she clung to for hours before being rescued by state police, her husband told The Associated Press.
"My wife was out there 4½ hours hanging in a tree with a house burning right beside her, flood waters running all around her," Scott said.
Information for this article was contributed by Scott Stroud and Steve Helber of The Associated Press and by Richard Perez-Pena and Jonah Engel Bromwich of The New York Times.
A Section on 06/26/2016