November 4–5, 1985
Election Day Flood Devastates the Cheat Valley Across County Lines
After prolonged heavy rain, the Cheat River reached a record crest of 36.9 feet at Rowlesburg. Floodwaters devastated Rowlesburg, Albright, and neighboring Cheat Valley communities, destroying homes, businesses, bridges, roads, and railroad infrastructure; 110 of Albright’s 132 homes were destroyed. Upstream in Tucker County, Parsons also suffered devastating flooding. Scientific study of the Cheat River and Black Fork documented exceptional flooding, erosion, and debris deposits, placing Preston’s losses within the wider disaster across the shared watershed.
Research status
This entry has completed the project’s verified review level.
Its date, wording, and supporting evidence have been reviewed to the level described by the project’s research standards.
Contemporary news coverage
Watch: Rowlesburg residents describe their losses
Original broadcast: NBC News · Tom Brokaw · November 1985
This approximately 90-second report shows the flooding in Rowlesburg and features residents describing what they lost. Their accounts offer a firsthand perspective on the disaster’s impact on the community.
The embedded video is hosted by an unofficial YouTube channel, separate from NBC News.
Watch on YouTubeSources and further reading
Where this entry comes from
U.S. Geological Survey, Flood of November 1985; NOAA National Water Prediction Service, Cheat River at Rowlesburg; Preston County News, “Thirty-five years since flood devastated Preston County”
Research notes
What the evidence establishes
USGS research places the November 4–5, 1985 event in the connected Cheat–Black Fork river system. Tucker County documentary photographs provide an upstream community perspective. The Parsons photographs depict the actual disaster in Tucker County, not damage in Rowlesburg or Albright.
The existing Rowlesburg crest and Albright home-loss figures are retained from the entry’s cited local sources; they were not independently reverified for this regional expansion. A gauge crest is measured against that station’s datum, not the depth of water throughout a town. Damage totals, discharge figures, and casualty counts must remain tied to their particular locations.
The added watershed context does not establish a dam failure or attribute the flood to a single facility. John Warner’s photographs are credited in Tucker Culture’s presentation, but no open reuse license is stated. They are linked, not reproduced. The exact exposure date and physical negative repository are not specified.
Related historical photograph
Floodwater at Dorsey’s TV Sales in Parsons, November 1985
Photograph by John Warner, published in Tucker Culture’s “The Great Flood of 1985: Finding Strength in Community.” The linked essay includes the First Street scene in Parsons, upstream from Preston’s Cheat Valley communities. This is an actual Tucker County flood photograph; reproduction permission has not been established.
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Related history
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