CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Despite numerous tornado warnings and flood watches from the National Weather Service, most of West Virginia was able to escape the strong weather with very little damage.
Power outages marked the worst problems left behind by two separate storm systems which crossed the state Thursday morning. The storms rolled in from the midwest overnight and arrived just as the sun was coming up.
One system came into the state from Kentucky, crossed the Tug Fork River, and then went through parts of Mingo, Logan, and Wyoming Counties before it crossed over I-77 into the Beckley area and finally exited the state in Monroe and Greenbrier Counties.
“We actually dodged a bullet. We had a shelter in place warning there about 7:30 or so this morning. We were kind of hunkered down waiting on the calls to come in and it didn’t really happen,” said Logan County Emergency Services Director Roger Bryant.
The other system came into the state through the Point Pleasant area and crossed into Roane County then across Braxton and Clay, finally exiting through Pocahontas and southern Randolph County.
“We had a lot of trees down and power lines down, but nothing drastic compared to what it could have been,” said Jeremy Bryant, Mason County’s Emergency Services Director.
It was largely the same story in all counites which had been in the path of the powerful storms.
“We just had minor impacts. There were a lot of trees down with blocked roadways, but nothing significant. There was a lot of rain and a lot of trees down, but that was about it,” said Doyle Cutright, Emergency Services Director in Upshur County.
Wood County had some flash flooding early. The most significant was at the intersection of US Route 50 and I-77 which shut-down the highway for about an hour until the water drained away.
As of 11 a.m. Appalachian Power had about 13,500 outages and First Energy reported just over 10,000 outages. Work to restore the service is underway. Appalachian Power reported already having crews in place ahead of the storm to jump in immediately and start making repairs.
The National Weather Service warns additional storm activity could hit the state later today.