BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. — A dozen West Virginia families are searching for answers on this Christmas week after a bad storm blew through their areas last Friday.
Nearly all of the Mountain State experienced high winds during the overnight hours thanks to a thin strip of high winds advanced in front of a cold front.
Communications director for central Appalachia region of American Red Cross Krista Farley-Raines says residents woke to roofs being torn from their homes.
“We’re currently at 12 cases, so that’s 12 families whose home received major damage or were destroyed,” Farley-Raines said. “A lot of roofs blew off of homes and trailers, so we did see a lot of damage.”
“We have one (case) where we’re still trying to touch base with the family. Five of those are out of Boone County and we’ve taken over 20 tarps down to help them cover those roofs,” she continued.
According to the National Weather Service wind speeds reached up to 90 miles per hour at one point early Friday morning in Boone County. Among the 12 families affected were Raleigh County and Berkeley County residents.
Farley-Raines said this caused trees to uproot.
“I think one or two of them (houses) had trees in them that had fallen. There were also a couple of fires that were caused by the storm,” she said. “We were very lucky it was not worse, but there were definitely some impacted families.”
She says this is not an ideal time for families to be looking for answers.
“This is definitely not the time of the year that you want to be out of your home or have damage to your home, so our hearts go out to all of those impacted, especially during the holidays,” Farley-Raines said.
Farley-Raines said the Red Cross is providing the 12 affected families with funds to cover the cost of hotels, food, clothing, and any other necessities.