CHARLESTON Governor Jim Justice declared a State of Emergency exists in all 55 counties of West Virginia.
The Governor previously issued a State of Preparedness in anticipation of a weekend winter storm that ultimately closed schools, offices and roadways.
A first round of flurries on Friday didn’t accumulate for long but the Saturday into Sunday overnight hours was a different story. Inches and inches of the fluffy stuff accumulated overnight and continued well into Sunday.
School called off for a majority of districts Monday. As of six o’clock Monday morning, 51 out of 55 counties reported some change in the school day schedule. According to the West Virginia Department of Education's website, the four counties operating on their usual schedule are Doddridge, Raleigh, Tyler and Wyoming. The Wyoming County Board of Education Facebook page posted Sunday that all schools were to be closed on Monday, January sixth. Another post rescheduled the board of education meeting to next Monday, January thirteenth.
Clay, Lincoln, Mingo, Monongalia and Pocahontas counties are operating as a non-traditional learning day. That means the physical buildings are closed, but school is going on remotely.
All other school districts have officially reported closed for Monday.
Meanwhile, the storm has brought the public business to a halt for the day. The Logan County Courthouse is shut-down for the day. All courts of the Eleventh Circuit and all offices are closed.
In the City of Logan, Mayor Serafino Nolletti closed City Hall. Moreover the water department’s office are closed. Garbage pick-up has now been scheduled for Tuesday and Tuesday’s for Wednesday.
Winter weather inevitably means power outages, and there are no shortages of power outages.
According to the power outage map on Appalachian Power’s website, Logan County has 1,269 customer outages as of 7:30 a.m. Monday. Most of those outages are reported out of the northwestern area of the county including parts of Chapmanville, Big Creek, Shively and Whirlwind.
Lincoln County has many outages. AEP reports 3,449 outages in Lincoln County. Those outages include Harts, Spurlockville and Sumerco.
Wyoming County has 1,148 outages. Mercer County has a whopping 9,794 outages from 99 outage cases. In McDowell County 2,558 cases are being reported their.
A winter weather advisory is in effect until one o’clock Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy mixed precipitation forecast. Additional snow accumulation up to two inches and ice accumulations around one tenth of an inch.
The advisory is in effect for southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia.
Governor Justice’s State of Emergency has mobilized the West Virginia National Guard to assist with the response to the storms.
PHOTOS | Appalachian Power / MGN Online