The 1991 West Virginia derecho was a serial derecho that started in Arkansas in the early morning hours of April 9, 1991 and made its way northeast, finally dying out over Pennsylvania late that evening.
Two people were killed and 145 were injured in the event, mainly from falling trees, flying debris, and mobile homes and trailers being overturned. Most of the destructive damage occurred in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, western Maryland, and Western Pennsylvania.
In West Virginia alone, there were 8,000 insurance damage claims for homes and businesses. Over 200,000 people lost power in the derecho. Many people experienced flickering lights and power surges. This derecho was the worst severe weather event for West Virginia since the Super Outbreak of April 3, 1974.
Famous quotes containing the words west and/or virginia:
“Every other evening around six o’clock he left home and dying dawn saw him hustling home around the lake where the challenging sun flung a flaming sword from east to west across the trembling water.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Being blunt with your feelings is very American. In this big country, I can be as brash as New York, as hedonistic as Los Angeles, as sensuous as San Francisco, as brainy as Boston, as proper as Philadelphia, as brawny as Chicago, as warm as Palm Springs, as friendly as my adopted home town of Dallas, Fort Worth, and as peaceful as the inland waterway that rubs up against my former home in Virginia Beach.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)