Dispatches from the West Virginia Tornados of 2024

If you have, by chance, been in southern West Virginia in the last week and saw a crazed, disheveled, and disgruntled middle-aged redhead, I’ll thank you to mind your business.

It’s been quite a week.

It started last Tuesday. I was up north, having just suffered through the ordeal of a morning with my father, and was starting back for home when my husband texted:

“It is getting real down here. Sirens going off, tractor trailers blown over by the wind. Tornado warnings.”

This was followed by a phone call that came in from my kids’ school system: the schools were in lockdown due to the weather, and students would shelter in place.

We are not accustomed to tornados here in West Virginia. Our main form of natural disaster is flooding, despite the fact that we have towns named Tornado, Hurricane, and Cyclone. We are of course too far from the ocean to deal with the latter two, and our topography doesn’t usually lend itself to the first. Not usually. But sometimes.

It turns out we have, on average, two tornados a year here. They are not the enormous, deadly monsters that menace the great plains, but they are still destructive. Typically, F-1s or 2s. And one came for my town on Tuesday. In fact, the National Weather Service says there were five in our area.

I was driving through rain 100 miles away and pulled over. Immediately after my husband texted me that he was heading for his boss’s basement, cell phone service went down. I could not reach him or my kids. I tried to check my Ring cameras and they were down; I assumed the power was out. But then it occurred to me that it could also be that my house was damaged, and worry set in. I stayed parked for thirty minutes, waiting to hear what was happening at home.

My husband finally responded that he was fine. He had driven by the schools, and they were undamaged, so even though I couldn’t reach my kids we could assume they were fine, too. He told me trees were down all over – not just branches, but huge, tall trees uprooted. His boss’s neighbor’s roof was partially gone. Roads were blocked in many places.

He made it to our house; the house itself was fine, but a large tree fell in our yard. It was on the property line with our neighbor, and so tall that the top of it was in the other neighbor’s yard, having crushed her fence. All the utility lines to our house were under the tree.

Thus began a saga that continues to this very moment.

I was overwhelmed just trying to figure out what to do first. We were hearing mixed messages and found ourselves in a chicken or egg situation. The power company said they couldn’t do anything about our lines until we took care of the tree, while simultaneously telling us not to go near or let anyone near the tree. The tree services were obviously not able to do anything about the tree until the lines were dealt with.

Meanwhile, our expensive homeowner’s insurance told us to go pound sand. They didn’t use those words, but they may as well have. No coverage for the tree because it didn’t damage our house or property; the neighbor’s fence was the neighbor’s problem. The electric line to our home was ripped down from the side of our house when the tree fell and would require an electrician; also not covered. We would have to get a hotel room, as it was going to be in the 30s for the next few nights; also not covered. The hundreds of dollars of food in our refrigerator and freezer? Covered! After $1000 deductible. So, basically, not covered. Not worth filing a claim that would probably just result in our rates increasing.

As soon as my husband had texted that there was a tornado, I booked a hotel. I remembered the derecho of 2012 that left us without power for 9 days in a July heatwave; there were no hotel rooms to be found back then, with every hotel and motel within an hour’s drive full of displaced families and linemen from out of state. This time, I beat the rush and got a room for my family.

Schools would be closed for the rest of the week, as many were still without electricity; several had debris that needed to be cleaned up before kids could return. Others had lost all their food and would need to be restocked. Fortunately, my husband’s place of work was unscathed with both power and Wi-Fi, so I could keep my younger son entertained and warm and be able to work. My oldest, who is 16, spent the first night in the hotel with us at my insistence, but declared he was fine to stay at the house after that. He showered and charged his devices at a friend’s house, and had battery powered lights, plenty of blankets, and just enough cell phone service, if he stayed in our bedroom. I reluctantly agreed; after all, we have two dogs that needed tended to.

On Wednesday, the electrician came to give an estimate. It was more bad news. The meter entry (where the power line connects to our electric meter) on our 70+ year-old house was not up to code, and would have to be upgraded before the power company would reconnect us. It was thousands for the necessary upgrade. I asked around and determined that was reasonable and gave the go ahead. They came to start work on Thursday, but when he went to city hall for the permit, the inspector told him they wouldn’t sign off on the work unless my inside breaker box was upgraded, as well. Apparently, the 200 amp fuse that it ran on is very old tech. That added another thousand or so to the bill.

The electrician got to work. Imagine my surprise to learn that the power company does not make sure that downed lines are disconnected or made safe before they turn them back on. My electrician was standing in my wet, swampy backyard when the power company saw fit to turn the main lines back on. The downed line lying in my wet grass came to life, mere feet from the electrician. He had to stop work until the power company came to deal with the downed line.

When would that be? Who knew? The power company didn’t.

Turns out the answer was two days later on Saturday, when my husband saw linemen on my street and flagged them down. I let my electrician know and he promised to come back first thing Monday morning. In the meantime, I got an estimate on cut up and haul away of the tree: another few thousand dollars.

On Sunday, while chainsaws roared outside as a crew hacked away at the tree in my yard, I threw away all our perishables. That was painful. Then I started adding up the bills, including the meals we had to pay for and the hotel rooms. My initial booking was only two nights; I was able to find us rooms for the next four nights, but at a premium. The total amount of money the storm was costing me, with no help from insurance, was a gut punch. And that was without putting a number on the wasted food. Ironically, I would have been better off if the tree had actually hit my house. Then, my insurance would have helped.

And yet, I am among the luckiest people in the world. I say that in sincerity. In addition to everyone I love being safe (indeed, no deaths or serious injuries were reported from the storm) I had money in savings to pay for all of this, as much as it hurt to have to use it. I don’t have a lot of savings, and it took a significant bite, but I had it. I wonder, what if I didn’t? Many, if not most, people where I live probably don’t. If the power company refuses to reconnect your electric until you make thousands of dollars of repairs and you don’t have the money, what do you do? Credit cards, maybe, but many have smaller credit limits, or don’t qualify for credit at all. Not so terribly long ago, I would’ve been in that position. I worry many people are.

Tomorrow will be a week since the tornado. The electrician is back at my house and should get his work completed today. Then we have to wait for the city to inspect. THEN, we have to wait for the power company to come back and reconnect. We are hopeful this will be completed by tomorrow. After that, we can get on our internet provider’s schedule to put our line back up; we are hearing anecdotally that service appointments are currently being scheduled for the end of the month. We are also hoping our cell phone company soon gets around to fixing whatever damage is making our phones unusable in many places.

Oh, I almost forgot about my trip to the ER on Saturday night. I had chest pain and shortness of breath and thought I was having a heart attack. Turns out, it was probably just a panic attack, coupled with dehydration. I’ve been a little stressed.

It’s been a week, y’all.