Thursday’s flooding event across the region caused numerous issues, but floodwaters in some areas are finally beginning to recede.

In Pikeville, the Levisa Fork of The Big Sandy River crested just below 37-and-a-half feet shortly before 4 a.m. Friday morning. With the flood stage at 35 feet for the river, the Pikeville Fire Department had already begun making plans to deploy the city’s floodgate near Pikeville High School.

“That wall literally is built with I-beams… we carry hundred pound I-beams, two people carry them at the same time and erect that wall,” states Battalion Chief Mitch Case of Pikeville Fire Department Station 1.

Case says that when the water level reaches 38 ft., they go to the City’s administration to let them know the current level and status of the water, then they continue to monitor it and wait for the call to put up the wall.

According to Case, the wall was last installed in 2015 when floodwaters reached 40 ft.