News Staff Kanawha County Emergency Management is preparing for the storm and will open the Emergency Operations Center virtually, if needed. They’re asking Appalachian Power to pre-stage equipment for potential power outages.
It looks like it will be a white Christmas. The National Weather Service is issuing a Winter Storm Warning for this afternoon through Friday afternoon. The rain will turn to heavy snow this afternoon with four-to-six inches of the white stuff.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is canceling the annual Christmas tree recycling program because of rising COVID-19 cases. Officials say composting and mulching your tree is a better alternative than throwing it into a landfill.
West Virginia is reporting a record breaking 14-hundred new COVID-19 cases, and another daily record of over forty more deaths. There are almost 23-thousand active cases of the virus across the state.
November unemployment numbers are up in over half of West Virginia counties. Calhoun County has the highest unemployment rate at over thirteen-percent. The state’s overall unemployment rate is just over six-percent.
Senator Joe Manchin helped put together a coalition of Republicans and Democrats to create a new COVID-19 relief bill. He says he couldn’t come back to West Virginia without a deal in place. President Trump is asking Congress to increase what he calls the ridiculously low 600-dollar payment, to two-thousand-dollars.
Governor Justice says he plans to spend all CARES Act funding by year’s end, despite an extension from the federal government. According to the state Auditor’s Office there is over 750-million-dollars in the CAREES Act account. More than half of that will go to pay unemployment compensation benefits.
Marshall University’s head football coach, Doc Holiday, has been named Conference USA’s Coach of the Year for the second. He also won the honor in 2014. The Thundering Herd is preparing to play Buffalo in the Camellia Bowl on Christmas Day.
Kentucky State Police are looking for an inmate who escaped from McDowell ARH Hospital while receiving medical treatment. Thirty-five-year-old Robert Lyttle was able to get out of his handcuffs, change his clothes and escape.
A St. Albans man is under arrest for shooting and killing a woman with a crossbow. Forty-four-year-old George Call Jr. is charged with murder. Police say it appears to be a domestic incident.