CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Heavy storms took down trees and power lines and left standing water on highways Thursday morning in West Virginia to begin what’s expected to be a busy day for storms heading in from the west.
The U.S. Route 50 corridor from Parkersburg to Clarksburg was the first area to see the heavy rain. That was followed by a severe thunderstorm that moved southeast from Mason County through the Kanawha Valley at around 5:30 a.m.
Features of the storms include strong wind gusts, lightning and heavy rain. In Jackson County, high winds knocked a mobile home off its foundations in Kenna. Interstate 64 westbound was blocked near Hurricane when a tree fell into the highway.
Two to four inches of rain fell overnight in parts of Ritchie, Doddridge, Lewis and Gilmer counties. There are also flood warnings in Summers and Greenbrier Counties along with parts of Grant, Hardy and Pendleton counties.
Appalachian Power Company reported at 8:00 a.m. just short of 17,000 of its customers without service. Most of the outages were reported in Kanawha, Putnam, Jackson and Roane counties.
Mon Power reported service interrupted for nearly 19,000 customers at 8 a.m. The highest outage numbers were reported in Braxton, Webster, Pocahontas and Lewis counties.
Flash flood watches are in effect for all 55 counties through Thursday afternoon.