LAVISTA, W.Va. — When a tornado hit the small community of Lavista in Fayette County over a month ago, damages were extensive with many residents fearing there would be no hope for recovery.
However, deputy chief of the Nuttall Fire Department, Rick Lewis told MetroNews that restoration efforts within that community along Route 60 have been overwhelmingly positive following the severe storm that hit West Virginia on April 2.
“If you drive through there right now you wouldn’t even know that a tornado had actually hit,” Lewis said. “The clean up process went well, all of those who lost their homes, those homes are demolished now and we’re in the process of bringing new homes in.”
The storm brought about a total of ten tornados across multiple different areas in Cabell, Putnam, Kanawha, and Fayette counties.
Lewis said insurance representatives have been assessing the damages in Lavista since then, and residents will be receiving reimbursements to make the repairs.
He said about 34 residents of the community received damage of some kind during the storm, and four homes were total losses.
Lewis said since day 1 of the storm’s aftermath, the Fayette County Commission and the Solid Waste Authority came together to provide the community with a series of dumpsters to help clean up all of the leftover debris, but that will be ending soon.
“We have set a deadline which I believe is the 18th, which is good, we should be good, because all of our staging areas are cleaned up, or will be cleaned up by the end of the week, so we should be good to go,” he said.
He said it has been a blessing the number of organizations, businesses, churches, and individuals who have come out to help the community since the storm.
Lewis said the Nuttall Fire Department kind of served as ground zero for clean up and recovery efforts. He said none of the support or resources from the station would be possible without the citizens’ continued support of the Fire Levy, which will be coming up on the ballot again next week on Election Day.
He said despite how unfortunate it was, the April 2nd storm was just one example of why that levy needs to be in place, and he encourages everyone to vote on it.
“We would like to not have to respond to anything but we know that’s not the case, and you know, we have to have the proper tools, the proper equipment, the proper training to do that with, and the fire levy really helps us to do that,” said Lewis.
Along with the host of damages, Lewis said two people were injured during the storm, but he’s grateful it didn’t get any worse than it did.
“It was a joint effort from everybody that day to make sure everyone’s safety was first and foremost as it is any day, you know, you can replace a home, you can replace buildings, roofs, etc., but the safety for the folks in Lavista and our county was priority number one,” said Lewis.
Lewis said their only concern now is all of the rain that’s predicted in the forecast over the next week as the saturated ground creates the risk of more downed trees and powerlines, so he said residents should still continue to remain cautious.