OHIO COUNTY, W.Va. — Ohio County EMA Director Lou Vargo said Sunday morning that three people are confirmed dead following Saturday evening’s flooding in Ohio County. In addition, Vargo said others are missing. “According to the National Weather Service, we received between 2-and-a-half and 4 inches of rain within about a 30-minute period,” Vargo said. “We almost immediately started getting 911 calls for rescue of people being trapped. All volunteer fire departments were alerted. The Wheeling Fire Department was alerted. I asked (Fire Chief Jim Blazier) for the swift water team because we had vehicles in the creeks and people who were stranded.” This led to a second alarm because the magnitude had grown so swiftly. “During this time, we had major infrastructure damage to roads, bridges, and highways where we couldn’t respond to a lot of incidents, so we were delayed in getting there because there was just so much damage,” Vargo said. Officials are urging people to stay away from affected areas. “This is an active disaster area,” Vargo said. “It’s unsafe for you to be there. It’s unsafe to have traffic out to where our first responders (are working). So we just plead for you to stay away from that area and let the first responders, and that department of highways and all other services do our job so we can get the citizens back into their homes as quickly as possible.” The governor has declared a state of emergency in Ohio County. The number for the emergency operations center is 304-234-3756.