CLENDENIN, W.Va. — Surrounded by muddy devastation, Cathy Light and her husband, Chris, thought it was “heaven sent” they had free burgers to munch on in a Clendenin parking lot Saturday.

To their left, the roof of a Dairy Queen slumped to the pavement. Behind it, a trailer home was ripped from its foundation. Occasional whiffs of rotten food wafted from a nearby grocery store that, not long ago, was filled with 5 feet of mucky water.

Before they jumped in a rescue boat in Clendenin on Saturday, the Lights could only save their dog, Odie, and a TV that sat atop a bedroom dresser — the highest-up they stored anything in their house, really.

The heavy rains that pummeled West Virginia resulted in at least 24 deaths, leaving some families homeless with the tearful realization that they're starting from scratch.

“I don't have anything,” said Cathy Light, as she ate the free meal provided by Grace Community Church. “Where do we go now?”

The scene in Clendenin, located in Kanawha County, wasn't as deadly as in Rainelle. Sixteen people died in Greenbrier County, at least 15 of them in Rainelle. Greenbrier is the only county where Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration believes people remain missing.

Rainelle Mayor Andrea “Andy” Pendleton wept as she surveyed her town Saturday.

“I weep for my people. I weep for the businesses,” she said.

About six buses full of people whose homes were without power or too damaged to inhabit were evacuated. Some were taken initially to a fire department facility, but then that flooded so they were moved to an abandoned store. When that started to flood, buses took the evacuees to a church 40 miles away.

Search and rescue teams went house to house, marking those checked with a spray-painted “X.” A water department filtration system, built with a $2.6 million loan, was damaged, Pendleton said.

Help came from multiple sources, including two search and rescue teams from Virginia.

Six other deaths were reported in Kanawha County, in addition to one each in Jackson and Ohio counties.

On Saturday, Tomblin was approved for a major federal disaster declaration. Tomblin's office said he made an expedited verbal request Saturday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for individual assistance for Kanawha, Greenbrier and Nicholas counties. Individual assistance includes housing and crisis counseling.

President Barack Obama called Tomblin on Saturday to extend his condolences, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement.

The president also directed White House staff to coordinate closely with Tomblin's team to make sure FEMA is providing all the appropriate assistance, Schultz said.

An area near the West Virginia-Virginia border received at least 9 inches of rain while other parts of the state had 3 to 5 inches, National Weather Service hydrologist John Sikora said.