First, there was widespread heavy rain, then came the snow. The weather system that moved through North Central West Virginia late last week created some issues, from the washing out of roadways and trails to power outages.

 

Director of Bridgeport Emergency Services Laura Pysz said usual troublesome locations were hit by Thursday night and Friday’s torrential rainfall.

 

Located parallel to Simpson Creek, Water Street was covered  and closed Friday afternoon.

 

Director of Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Don Burton said city trails and City Park were also affected by the waters.

 

“The water level came up to the main City Park parking lot and it also covered the trails in some sections,” he said.

 

Monday morning, Burton and staff members were on site cleaning trails with Bridgeport Public Works’ flusher truck.

 

“We hosed the trail off, then the walk bridge from City Park to the backside of the (Bridgeport) high school where the baseball fields are,” Burton said. “There was a bunch of debris – limbs and trash – on the walk bridge, so that had to be cleaned off, as well.”

 

Some areas with heavy mud took some time - and labor-intensive work - to clean up.

 

Also affected, Pysz said, was Route 50/West Main Street where a hillslide across from Speedway created traffic delays Friday while crews worked to clean it up.

 

Along Route 131, near the entrance to Bridgeport Recreation Complex, a portion of roadway was washed out.

 

“The standing water and vehicles driving through that area has broken up the pavement,” Pysz said.

 

Be cautious and slow down when traveling the area and expect rough driving conditions.

 

Before sundown Friday, the city parking lot located off Center Street and behind East Main, was also under water. That water subsided during the night. That area also required substantial clean-up efforts.

 

In addition to dealing with the impacts of the weather, Bridgeport Emergency Services was also involved in the potential set-up of an Emergency Operation Plan.

 

“We have a plan in place in case Bridgeport experiences major flooding,” Pysz said. 

 

The EOP lays out plans for any sort of man-made or natural disaster that can occur in Bridgeport.

 

“As for implementing that plan, we are always ready,” she said.

 

Saturday, the weather woes were quite different as a snow system moved into the area, dropping very large snowflakes and covering the ground quickly. Hit harder than Bridgeport and Clarksburg were areas west, including Harrisville and Parkersburg.

 

That severe weather moved into Mon Power’s service area around 6 p.m. – starting in the Parkersburg area and thereafter spreading, wet, heavy dense snow east toward Harrison County, Bridgeport and up and down the I-79 corridor.

 

“We had the usual troubles associated with wet snow – lots of tree limbs that came down, damaging our lines,” said Todd Myers, spokesperson for Mon Power.

 

Altogether, about 13,200 Mon Power customers were impacted by Saturday’s storm, with nearly all customers restored by 2 p.m. Sunday. 

 

“Harrison County and surrounding areas were hit pretty hard – about 4,000 customers from a number of widespread outages,” Myers said. “We also had about 3,000 other Mon Power customers affected by equipment problems – likely storm related – in our transmission substation off Glen Falls Road that started around 10:40 p.m. Saturday.”

 

Repairs were made and power was restored to all in the early morning hours Sunday. Communities affected by that transmission outage included Stealey, Glen Falls, Arbutus Park and Dola.

 

Crews from Ohio Edison and Potomac Edison assisted Mon Power crews with post-storm power restoration.

 

Read Jeff Toquinto's story about a weather-related hill slip along Bridgeport's city trail HERE.