SPRING MILLS, W.Va. — One person was killed and 10 others injured in a 15-vehicle crash on Interstate 81 on Thursday night during a severe thunderstorm.
The wreck, which occurred between Martinsburg and Spring Mills at about 5 p.m. was caused by a reckless driver, police said. The damage from the wreck and the storm caused the interstate to be closed into Thursday night.
Police were expected to charge the driver.
Several storms cells Thursday evening left in their wake dozens of downed trees, thousands of power outages and a fatal traffic accident in northern and eastern sections of West Virginia.
The severe thunderstorms included damaging winds, hail and heavy rain. Morgan County Sheriff Vince Shambaugh told MetroNews he saw a small tornado touch down near Martinsburg at around 4 p.m. He said the storm produced golf ball-sized hail.
The Morgantown area was hard hit with lots of reports of downed trees. The Martinsburg area also was dealt a heavy blow from a storm cell.
One-inch diameter hail was reported in a storm moving through Summersville at about 7 p.m. Thursday.
Mon Power reported more than 36,000 customers without power at 7:30 p.m. including more than 13,000 in Monongalia County, nearly 6,500 in Harrison County and about 3,200 customers without service in both Lewis and Randolph counties.
By Friday morning, the company was reported outages had been reduced to approximately 16,000 customers.