CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The storm that took down trees and power lines and sent some small streams and creeks out of their banks while barreling through West Virginia to start the day Thursday was a derecho, according to the National Weather Service.
“It was, in definition, if you look how long that this system came across,” said Mike Kistner, a Charleston meteorologist, of the storm that began forming Wednesday in Illinois and Indiana where significant damage was reported.
It rolled into the Mountain State in the early morning hours Thursday.
“Basically, a derecho is just a long-lived line of thunderstorms and this thing traveled across several states,” Kistner explained.
The system was significantly weaker than the June 2012 derecho that destroyed power infrastructure throughout West Virginia, but it did do the kind of damage to power poles and lines that Todd Meyers, spokesperson for First Energy, estimated would take days to address for customers of Mon Power and Potomac Edison.
“It’ll be a multi-day restoration. We’re bringing in crews from other areas,” Meyers said.
Phil Moye, spokesperson for Appalachian Power, agreed and noted damage was not in concentrated in specific areas. “It really is a matter of where the storm went as it went across the state,” he said.
At one point on Thursday morning, nearly 40,000 homes and businesses in West Virginia did not have power.
High water was also creating problems.
Kistner confirmed localized flooding reports in portions of Ritchie County, Wood County and Lewis County. As of Thursday morning, Flood Warnings were in effect through central West Virginia, from Wood County to Randolph County and Pocahontas County into Grant County.
Two inches was about the average in many areas, meteorologists said.
Parts of Doddridge, Ritchie, Lewis and Gilmer Counties saw two to four inches of rain in the overnight hours into Thursday. At one point Thursday morning, there was a report that rain was falling in Beckley at a rate of 3.5 in. per hour.
A nursing home in Ritchie County, the Pine View Nursing and Rehabilitation in Harrisville, was evacuated as a precaution on Thursday morning because of high water.
A couple of underpasses were flooded in Huntington Thursday morning, closing at least two city roads there.
The same system dropped 5 in. of rain in Perry County, Ohio.
The storms Thursday also included winds in excess of 40 miles per hour. At times, Kistner said gusts were as strong as 65 mph. In Jackson County, high winds knocked a mobile home off its foundation in Kenna.
Downed trees blocked part of Route 82 near Cowen in Webster Springs.
A section of Interstate 64 west in Putnam County was closed for a time on Thursday morning due to downed trees.
Kanawha County Metro 911 reported 15 significant accidents, many along Interstate 64, between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Thursday and more than 350 emergency calls overall during that time.
Additional storms were in the forecast for Thursday afternoon into Thursday evening in parts of the Mountain State.
“The main threat is going to be damaging winds, flash flooding. However, you can’t rule out the isolated tornado threat because there is some strong wind shear (Thursday) afternoon,” Kistner said on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”