Some Raleigh County residents were without power Saturday evening, reportedly after lightning struck, authorities said.
A woman told Ghent firefighters lightning struck near her home. She said she then detected smoke that smelled like it came from an electrical shortage, according to the Raleigh County Emergency Operations Center.
Firefighters then discovered a large area around Flat Top Road had no power, the EOC said. The estimated restoration time was 10:30 p.m. Saturday. The number of affected households was unknown.
While areas of southern West Virginia were under a severe thunderstorm warning Saturday, few problems were reported. Other than the Ghent outage, the Raleigh EOC only reported some burglar alarms going off, likely triggered by flickering power.
— Amelia A. Pridemore
