CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Across West Virginia a narrow line of strong winds left a lot of damage in its wake. Described by the National Weather Service as a “squall line,” the thin strip of high winds advanced in front of a cold front Thursday night and early Friday morning from the southern coalfields to the northern panhandle and moved west to east across the state. In nearly every county, people were awakened by howling winds or a sudden loss of power.
“We’ve had a lot of heavy wind come through here. A lot of trees have come down and brought down power lines all over the county,” said Randall Riggs, President of the Ritchie County Commission.
Trees were twisted in every direction and in some cases intertwined with power lines.
“We’ve got a few roads shut down because of power lines across them. We’ve just got to give the power company time to do their job because there’s so many of them it’s going to take them time to do their job,” Riggs added.
Riggs said there were some instances of property damage in his county. A tree limb went through the side of a home in Harrisville, but it was the home of the Harrisville Fire Chief who was spending his night assisting others. He hadn’t had time to assess his own losses. The roof of a home was torn off a house in Pennsboro according to Riggs.
Similar stories were told on social media from all across the state. A trailer in a Boone County mobile home court was destroyed when the winds lifted off the roof and rearranged the interior. Across much of the state trees were blown down across highways, even traffic on I-79 was impacted for a brief time near Star City.
There will need to be repairs at Man High School’s baseball/softball complex ahead of the spring. The wind took down the backstop and damaged fences and equipment on the high school’s baseball and softball fields. A nearby Little League field also took a hit.
“It was like a tornado. Light poles are broken and fences torn down,” said Man High Baseball Coach Mike Crosby.
Logan County Emergency Services Director Roger Bryant said most of his county woke up to a mess.
“We had those winds come through that were really strong. People woke up to a few roads blocked and we had pretty close to 3,500 people without power,” said Bryant.
Work to make repairs throughout the state is underway. There were no reports of any injuries as a result of the storm.