West Third Avenue is open again after a major rockslide two days ago in Williamson. Crews worked around the clock to reopen the road in the Fairview Addition. Official are warning drivers to slow down in the area, because the road surface is rougher than normal.
The West Virginia Division of Highways says the Pomeroy-Mason Bridge did not suffer any damage when it was hit by a loose barge. As many as fifteen barges were reported loose and floating down the Ohio River Thursday night. Tug boats have secured all the barges.
Huntington Mayor Steve Williams says the city is engage in a “transformation renaissance.” The mayor gave his State of the City address Friday night. He says the city’s neighborhoods have been confronted by a “barrage of challenges,” but officials are focused on solutions and government is positioned to be fiscally sound.
The state Office of Emergency Management will continue to monitor the Ohio River after several days of rainfall. The river has been above flood stage since Thursday and reached its crest at over 48-feet this morning at Point Pleasant, and over 50-feet in Huntington.
WVU quarterback Trey Lowe is entering the transfer portal after earning his undergraduate degree this summer. Lowe was third on the depth chart, and saw limited action with the Mountaineers. Senior Austin Kendall and junior Jarret Doege are expected to compete for the starting QB job.
The ring-leader of a shoplifting network in the Kanawha Valley has been charged with money laundering. Nedeltcho Vladimirov was in federal court yesterday. He was named a suspect in a massive fencing operation that hired a network of shoplifters that stole nearly 400-thousand-dollars in merchandise over the past two years.
The state Senate passed a bill that would make fire stations safe surrender site to leave an unwanted baby within thirty-days of birth. Similar laws are in place in other states, but in West Virginia a baby can only be surrendered at a hospital.
A study from MIT found serious security concerns about the voting app used in West Virginia elections. It found that hackers could “alter, stop, or expose how an individual voted.”
The former owner of the Middletown Mall in Fairmont, Dietrich Fansier, has been sentenced to over a year in prison for bankruptcy and tax fraud. He admitted to stealing about 225-thousand-dollars in tenants’ rent money, and concealing it during bankruptcy proceedings.
Crews are working to cleanup a landslide that caused a fiery train derailment in Pike County. Two CSX crew members were trapped, but another worker was able to get them out, and firefighters rescued them by boat. They were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.