Shuman (left) helps the West Milford Fire Department clear a tree from the road that fell from his yard in Laurel Valley in Clarksburg.
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Thousands of area residents were left without power after a fast-moving storm carrying high-speed winds tore through the region Tuesday.
Wind gusts nearing 60 miles per hour were reported in North Central West Virginia Tuesday afternoon, according to Nick Webb, a National Weather Service meteorologist based out of Charleston.
“We had a line of strong, severe storms that moved through that area between 3:20 p.m.-3:50 p.m. that probably had 50-60 mile-per-hour winds,” Webb said.
Webb said the National Weather Service received reports of numerous downed trees and power lines in Harrison County.
The storm carried potent winds and moved swiftly, he said.
“This was a fast-moving system, generally moving east at 40-50 mile per hour,” Webb said. “It moved in and moved out very quickly.”
Todd Meyers, a spokesman for Mon Power parent company FirstEnergy, said preliminary reports showed approximately 62,000 Mon Power customers and an additional 6,000 Potomac Edison customers without power as of Tuesday evening.
FirstEnergy deployed crews to respond to outages across the state Tuesday, he said.
The storm’s gusts downed a significant number of trees, limbs and power lines, Meyers said, adding that crews will be engaged in what is likely to be a “multi-day restoration…
