West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice placed four counties under a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon just hours after a major line of storms moved through packing 80 and 90 mph winds knocking out power to more than a quarter of Appalachian Power customers in central and Southern West Virginia.

Insider was concerned about news we heard during the IBO Conference that indicated the winds caused significant damage to several billboard structures in the state and reached out to Bill Lodzinski who is President of WV Outdoor as well as very active in the Outdoor Advertising Association of West Virginia.

“Unfortunately,This was our company. We had several structures destroyed completely. Four catastrophically and several others in various stages of damages. It could have been worse because no one was injured or killed. We can replace billboards. Of the all the structures damaged, only one was a double-stack. Was out in the field with clean up operations, working with WVDOT, dealing with business affected by the damages, communicating with insurance carriers and fielding inquiries. Plus working with our Advertisers that were affected. We have it under control. Just waiting on WVDOT confirmation on conformity so we can rebuild.”

“I was on way to IBO Louisville when the storm hit so I cancelled my trip. We brought in several contractors to help cleanup.”

To provide readers with an idea of the severity of the storm, we located this news story from WCHS TV out of Dunbar, WV.

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