PARKERSBURG - Severe storms rolled through the valley Monday, downing trees and prompting a tornado warning.
The National Weather Service in Charleston issued a tornado warning early Monday morning. The warning was later downgraded to a tornado watch, which expired around 1 p.m. Monday, but several area flood watches remained in effect throughout the day and into the evening.
The eastward moving storm moved into the area around 7:30 a.m. The storm brought torrential downpours and high winds. Lightning and thunder could be seen and heard throughout the night, beginning shortly after midnight.
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Weather, high water
Officials with Wood County 911 were inundated with calls Monday morning of fallen tree limbs, downed trees and intermittent power outages. A dispatcher with the 911 center said there were no reports of flooding, "just downed limbs and trees."
Roane County 911 Center reported a couple road closures Monday morning due to downed tree limbs. Grannies Creek Road in Newton was closed for two hours around 9 p.m.
Dispatchers with the Ritchie/Doddridge County 911 Center reported no high water, but several trees blocking roads, including Lamberton Road and Industrial Park Road in Pennsboro. By noon, the roads were reopened.
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The early morning storm downed a tree in the backyard of a Central Avenue residence in Williamstown Monday.
About 1,400 customers of Mon Power, formerly Allegheny Power, in Wood and surrounding counties lost electricity.
More than 1,200 were in Wood County in Parkersburg and in Belleville with more than 900 customers in the Belleville area without service because of a problem with a main line, according to the power company.
Crews were working on 12 problems in Parkersburg involving blown fuses and downed lines Monday morning.
Other electrical service outages in Wood County were reported in Davisville, Walker, Waverly and Williamstown affecting about 55 customers. Outages were reported in Harrisville, Paden City, Pennsboro, Ravenswood, St. Marys, Sistersville, Ellenboro, Middlebourne and Spencer.
Mon Power reported 7,168 outages across the state and 12,510 in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Mark Nitowski, a spokesman for Mon Power, said by mid-afternoon about 170 Wood County customers were still without power, with about 115 of those customers being in Parkersburg.
Outages in the Wetzel and Tyler County areas were almost completely restored by mid-afternoon, he said.
"Our crews have been out since the storm hit trying to restore power as quickly and safely as possible," he said.
All told Nitowski said Mon Power had restored power to more than 14,000 West Virginia customers by about 2 p.m. Monday.
By late morning American Electric Power in Ohio reported more than 375 customers were without electricity in Washington County. In 15 Ohio counties, more than 16,500 customers were without power.
The storms initially left about 42,000 customers without power, the company said. The hardest hit areas included Lancaster, northeast and southeast Columbus, Newark and Zanesville areas.
The Chillicothe service area reported more than 4,600 customers without power, the company said.
Jess Mancini contributed to this report.
