by Kate Shunney
Just half an hour of intense weather on Saturday evening inflicted severe damage on parts of Morgan County, cut power to thousands and cut off access to War Memorial Hospital for close to a full day.
At around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 19, a storm moved into the county from the west, carrying with it heavy rain and straight-line winds that approached tornado speeds. Weather officials have said it was a microburst.
Following an isolated path, the storm appears to have cut into Morgan County around Largent and moved through Great Cacapon, where it toppled large trees that pulled down power lines in the center of town. The storm continued over Cacapon Mountain, smashing trees across WV-9 and onto homes and vehicles near the Panorama Overlook.
Judging by damage assessed by Morgan County emergency officials, the storm then moved north, striking down trees and power poles along Fairview Drive, and continued its destruction on River Road and along parts of Martinsburg Road as it headed into Washington County, Md. and northward into Pennsylvania. In Morgan County, the storm was largely out of the area by 10 p.m. 
Morgan County 911 Director Marshall Younker said on Monday that the 911 center received around 65 calls in the hour following the storm’s movement through the county. Most of those calls were for trees down, trees on utility wires, wires on fire and trees on structures or vehicles.
At the Panorama, a tree fell on a passenger vehicle with the driver inside. He narrowly escaped being crushed by the tree. At least two more vehicles were struck with fallen trees while on or near the roadway. There were also multiple wrecks caused by the storm and its debris.
Younker said initial calls were prioritized by severity, risk and accessibility.
A call for electric service being ripped off a house was checked out by volunteer firefighters and then handed off to electric utility Potomac Edison.
“It was a messy event but everyone is safe,” said Younker.
He estimates the 911 center took 240 calls in the 12 hours after the storm.
Potomac Edison said 5,000 customers in Morgan County lost power on Saturday. Many got power back on Sunday, but on Monday there were 1,320 customers still without electricity – 1,133 in Berkeley Springs and 181 in Great Cacapon.
Jason Hoover, Director of Morgan County’s Office of Emergency Services, said Monday’s ongoing storm response was focused primarily on coordinating the West Virginia Division of Highways and the electric company crews to restore power safely to areas of the county where lines were pulled down or snapped.
A spokesman for Potomac Edison said the severe weather broke poles, cross arms and pulled down wire.
Hoover said his office hasn’t had many requests from the public for direct assistance for shelter or supplies. He said anyone who needs items or help should call the non-emergency dispatch number, 304-258-0305.
Residents may be contacted by the state to help with damage surveys in the county, collecting data about storm impacts. That doesn’t mean the county will necessarily be in line for disaster relief funds, said Hoover.
Weather officials have agreed that Saturday’s storm was a microburst with straight-line winds. There are reports of winds up to 95 miles per hour, which is approaching tornado-force winds, but without the rotation of air.
The National Weather Service describes a microburst as a column of sinking air within a thunderstorm that is usually smaller than 2.5 miles in diameter. Wind speeds can approach that of an EF-1 tornado.
On Fairview Drive, power lines to the north and the south of War Memorial Hospital were toppled, cutting off access to the facility. EMS could not take emergency patients to the hospital over the single access road, blocked by poles and electric lines.
The hospital was on diversion, meaning patients with emergency needs were taken to other hospitals in the region on Saturday night and Sunday.
The hospital also lost electrical power and had to operate on its generators, which have the capacity to run for four days, said Hoover.
“The outage at the hospital is due to 17 broken poles in the area, for example. Access to the hospital was restored yesterday, and our crews have been setting new poles and expect to restore power to the hospital by the end of the day,” said Will Boye, spokesman for Potomac Edison, on Monday.
Hospital officials did shuttle some employees in and out over private property using UTVs to rotate workers over different shifts, said Hoover.
Hoover said on Monday afternoon that the public could help in storm recovery by avoiding areas where electric crews are working so they can do their jobs safely.
“Generally, transmission and substation facilities are repaired first because they supply power to the lines serving communities, neighborhoods and individual customers. Next, we give priority to hospitals and other critical medical facilities, communications facilities and emergency response agencies. After that, crews work to restore power as quickly as possible to the rest of our customers, typically addressing outages that restore the largest number of customers before moving to more isolated problems,” said Boye
“I know people are curious, but don’t go sightseeing,” Hoover said.
