BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Further slipping of the ground at the Barboursville Target is causing significantly more damage to the building.
WSAZ first told you about the slip forcing the store to temporarily close a couple of weeks ago.
Barboursville Mayor, Chris Tatum, says ground behind Target moved more over the past few days, most significantly overnight.
He says significant damage has been done to the perimeter and roadway behind the building, as well as to the building itself.
Tatum says Target has engineers and experts on site assessing the damage.
Utility crews are also on site monitoring the sewer system.
The mayor says all other businesses in the plaza remain open and are not believed to be in any danger.
He says safety is the most important factor for everyone involved.
Breanna Vest works at a massage business across from Target. She says it was stunning to see the images of the damage Wednesday morning.
“At first I didn’t believe it,” Vest said. “It’s very shocking. I still don’t understand how the other businesses can stay open considering how bad it is back there.”
Erin Davis works at one of the businesses in the same strip as Target.
“It looks insane,” she said.
Davis says she can’t help but wonder how much worse it’s going to get. She says her heart goes out to the Target employees.
“I do have faith we’re going to be afloat,” she said. “I’m just not sure about Target.”
Residents at three homes behind the store received voluntary evacuation notices from Target prior to this latest slip. The mayor says Target offered to cover the relocating costs to those residents.
Residents of three homes near Barboursville Target receive voluntary evacuation notice
As to how this latest slip will affect the store’s future, the mayor said it’s too early to say, but he added the business will not be making any moves to open too soon.
Target released a statement on Saturday well before this latest slip saying the store was expected to remain closed for a prolonged period.
You can imagine, this latest development will not do anything to speed up that process.
Drone video shot by WSAZ shows an aerial view of the damage.
West Virginia American Water released the following statement to WSAZ on Wednesday:
“We do have a crew out proactively addressing water service for the businesses in the shopping center as the hill continues to slip. When the hill slip first occurred on Feb. 2 and damaged our water main, we repaired the main by cutting and capping the section of main below the slip to keep the shopping center businesses in water service. As the hill slip has worsened today and continues to damage our water main, we’ve had to expand that cut and cap on the water main. Customers in the shopping center may currently be experiencing temporary low water pressure or no water as we work to make these emergency repairs. Water service is expected to be restored in the next couple of hours. Customers have been notified about this temporary inconvenience.”
The following photo was sent to our newsroom just before 5 p.m.
Here’s a side-by-side progression look:
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