New River Gorge Bridge Watershed

 The main threat to my study area is flooding As outlined in my earlier post there was a terrible flood in 2016 that killed multiple people Floods in the New River Gorge can devastate the area because of the steep topography on either side which can funnel heavy rainfall quickly into the gorge which can do a lot of damage very quickly. It is essential that we combine structural and non-structural approaches to mitigate the damages of flooding in this area for the future.  Structural:       expanding on the floodplain: At the moment the floodplain in this area is very narrow and gives very little room for rising water.     expanding the riparian buffers to reduce surface runoff and absorb precipitation. Non-Structural:      Improve on stormwater management     Increase monitoring and forecasting to predict when there could be flooding events and then have time to prepare accordingly.

  CWP Slides

Upon doing some research on some different locations on the new river I found some data for Hawk's Nest state park which is one of the primary locations in my study area.  As you can see from the data, they have had some very high levels of water which led to some flooding in the area.  One other interesting fact I came across while researching for any notable floods in Hawk's Nest was the construction of the Hawk's Nest tunnel. Built in the 1930's the tunnel was constructed in order to lead the water from Hawk's Nest Lake to create hydroelectric power for West Virginian citizens. During construction of this tunnel over 2900 workers were exposed to high levels of silica which can get into your lungs and cause clogging and trouble breathing, as a result of this many of the workers died and it is known to be one of the deadliest occupational disasters in American history. Today the tunnel is still in use and provides hydroelectric power. In terms of flooding, the New ...