All Good Here

You might gave seen on the news that West Virginia got hit with some bad storms and even a couple tornadoes yesterday. And just across the river, Marietta and areas to its north and west also had a tornado and some bad flooding. The auction house we frequently buy from is right in the worst hit area over there, but i have been unable to find out if they are okay. 

Somehow the storms missed us, going north and south of our county. This was a cell phone tower near St. Mary's,  WV, a small town we have visited several times, which was hit by a tornado:

At Philippi, WV, there was great concern about the historic two-lane covered bridge,  but it seems to have survived, so far.

This map shows how many roads were closed this morning suevto flooding, downed trees, downed power lines,  and even buildings, homes, and other debris washed into the roadways.

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For a while I was worried about my granddaughter Haley and her house, and my son Aaron's family, who all live around Fairmont, WV. I got text alerts that a tornado was heading their way, but fortunately the tornado apparently fizzled out in the hills so it didn't reach them. Whew.

While we are safe and fine, having only got 3" of hard rain, many areas in our state experienced flooding, and there was more than one tornado. It is so sad to see the devastation.  This isn't a wealthy state, and many people already living on the edge are now dealing with huge losses. The randomness of such storms is just hard to cope with. One man was trapped in his car with his year-old child, by a huge tree that fell on his car, but miraculously they were unharmed. I have not heard of any fatalities, yet, which is wonderful. Stuff can be replaced, people can't. 

I know it seems odd, but I feel so personally connected to so much of this state, because I traveled so much of it during the 25 years I was a storyteller.  I got to know the people,  researched their town's histories, and often found stories that I added to my repertoire. Each one feels more like my hometown than the place I grew up. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.