Free Republic

All week volunteers have been rolling up their sleeves and gutting a church that has been a place of comfort for generations. Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Elkview, WV and their school Elk Valley Christian were filled with mud and water. Lee Swor has been the pastor for 30 years. He said the outpouring of help has been an inspiration.

CLAY COUNTY, WV - Jesse Denton and his family lost almost all their belongings in high flood waters last week -- even his prized Chevy Camaro started floating down the river. "We estimate that about 80 percent of our stuff (is gone)," Denton said. "We have a storage unit up in Elkview and that had about two-and-a-half feet of water over everything. And at a certain point you just start saying, if water got on it, you throw it out." Denton said he and his family have been cleaning 24/7 but they still can't stay in their home. And after...

Greenbrier County, WV - Two Greenbrier County women are out on bond after being arrested for pretending to be victims of the recent flooding. The Greenbrier County Sheriff's Department says Donna Lynn Allen and Elizabeth Ann Martin, both of Lewisburg, were caught taking supplies, food, and water from various flood relief shelters. Allen allegedly told officers that she lived in White Sulphur Springs and lost her home in the severe weather. Deputies later found out that both women live in an apartment complex in Lewisburg that was untouched by the flooding.

FAYETTEVILLE, WV (WCHS/WVAH) — The Fayette County Sheriff's Office said it has received multiple threats of looting and is warning looters of harsh punishments. A release from the sheriff's office said the Nallen and Russelville areas have suffered extensive flood damage and many of its residents have lost nearly everything. It this time of crisis, some people are coming into the area to loot homes.

According to a news release from the WV Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management 24 people are now dead as a result of these deadly storms. Gov. Early Tomblin announced the request for a Federal Disaster Declaration has been granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist West Virginians after extreme flooding on Thursday and Friday. The news release adds the declaration will provide individual assistance which includes emergency medical support, housing and addresses a number of immediate needs to residents in Greenbrier, Kanawha and Nicholas Counties. 16 people have been found dead in Greenbrier County, six in...

ELKVIEW, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Emergency crews are working to rescue hundreds of people trapped at the Elkview Crossings Mall. On Thursday night, the overpass bridge into the shopping annex gave-way to flood waters and is completely washed out. The Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority says they are estimating about 500 people are stuck in the plaza. At this time they are not sure how to rescue all of the people. One of the options they are considering is building a temporary bridge. But at this time it is unclear what they will do.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has declared a State of Emergency for 44 counties. This excludes the Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Grant, Hardy, Mineral, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson counties.

KANAWHA COUNTY, WV - Kanawha County Dispatchers tell 13 News an elderly man has died in the flash flooding in Clendenin. This is the first fatality dispatchers know of during this storm. This happened in the Jordan Creek Road area of Clendenin. Dispatchers say their preliminary reports show 50 homes have been damaged and 20 destroyed in this storm so far.

ELKVIEW, WV - The water and gas lines supplying the Elk View Shopping Center have broken. 13 News Assignment Editor Michael Carmen says there is no water at the businesses and they can't use the gas now either. Kmart is allowing its employees to stay the night in the business. Carmen adds the road in and out of the shopping center washed out at 8:30 p.m.

A federal judge ruled Friday that a lobbyist and former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official can testify for a coal company in its lawsuit against the agency. The EPA had sought to block Jeff Holmstead, who led the EPA’s air pollution office under then-President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, from appearing as an expert witness in Murray Energy Corp.’s case. The agency argued that Holmstead’s time at the EPA is a significant conflict of interest and his testimony would amount to little more than unreliable legal conclusions. The EPA “effectively argues that, because Mr. Holmstead once worked at...

Blue Creek Academy was an abusive hell on earth, former students say—and the principal who ran it is now heading up a new Bible school in another state. Jacob* dressed himself in a camouflage jacket and a matching beanie on the summer morning he ran away into the West Virginia hills. At 14 years old, he was one of the youngest, smallest, and longest-attending students at Blue Creek Academy, a religious reform school for boys from which he was desperate to escape. Blue Creek Academy was made up of an old schoolhouse and several cabins situated on a remote campground...

On Sunday, West Virginia’s Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Act officially took effect. The law, which bans D&E abortions, passed in February but was vetoed by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin. As Live Action News’ Calvin Freiburger reported, less than 24 hours later, West Virginia’s House and Senate overwhelmingly voted to override the veto. According to NRL News, the ban on dismemberment abortions was supported by 100% of West Virginia’s women senators and 83% of women delegates. The ban received extensive bipartisan support, and State Sen. Ryan Ferns argues that the ban is just common sense legislation. “We’re talking about ripping...

A Tucker County man is facing more than 1,000 sex charges involving a family member. James Dixson Wilson, 52, of Dryfork, is charged with 553 counts of second degree sexual assault and 553 counts of sexual abuse by parent or guardian, which totals 1,106 counts, according to the Tucker County Sheriff's Department. Deputies in Tucker County received a referral from the Department of Health and Human Resources on May 19 regarding a possible sexual assault. During an interview with 16-year-old female victim, she told authorities the assault took place in July 2008 during a family reunion.

UPDATE (11:30 AM 5/19/16): The West Virginia State Police served a third juvenile petition to a 13-year-old boy on Thursday, May 19th, for incidents at Clay Middle School. The petition was served for the crimes of making terroristic threats, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder

A West Virginia woman died after suffering a “fat embolism” while undergoing plastic surgery to increase the size of her gluteal region.  Heather Meadows, a 29-year-old mother of two, was killed by fat particles that entered her bloodstream through a vein during a lipid transfer procedure. The fat particles clogged arteries in her heart and lungs, causing cascading organ failure and death. She was taken to an emergency room after going into cardiac arrest during the cosmetic surgery and was pronounced dead on arrival. This fat transfer procedure is common in what is called a “Brazilian butt lift,” where liposuction...

In November, Donald Trump would be the choice of 44 percent of West Virginia Democratic primary voters who supported Bernie Sanders Tuesday, CBS News early exit polling found. But support for Trump in the general election is largely driven by independents who were allowed to vote in West Virginia's Democratic primary. More than half would back Trump against either Hillary Clinton or Sanders.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign team knew she was going to lose in West Virginia. As I’ve said in a previous post , the state hasn’t gone Republican since 1996 and Romney won every county in 2012. After the Democratic primary on Tuesday, 42 percent of Democrats want the next president to be less liberal, with 44 percent of Bernie Sanders supporters saying they’ll vote for Trump in November. It’s just a more conservative electorate across the board, which is why Clinton’s damage control regarding her remarks about putting coal miners out of business was so offensive. She doesn’t care; she...

ATHENS, Ohio (April 15, 2010) – A new study led by Ohio University scientists suggests that early Native Americans left a bigger carbon footprint than previously thought, providing more evidence that humans impacted global climate long before the modern industrial era. Chemical analysis of a stalagmite found in the mountainous Buckeye Creek basin of West Virginia suggests that native people contributed a significant level of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through land use practices. The early Native Americans burned trees to actively manage the forests to yield the nuts and fruit that were a large part of their diets. “They...

Hillary Clinton is anxious to compete in the Democratic primary in Kentucky, particularly after suffering a humiliating loss in West Virginia. Now she is relying on the golden voice of Morgan Freeman, to help turn out black voters in the state. In a new, minute-long ad, Clinton begins by telling voters of what she calls “systemic racism” in the United States. “We have to face up to the hard truths of injustice and systemic racism,” she says, recalling the wrongs suffered by African American voters in the justice system and at the hands of police officers.

Americans, collectively, are not as angry as watching cable TV would lead you to believe. But many poorer, less-educated folks who have been left behind in the 21st century—the ones who have seen their wages stagnate, their opportunities for upward mobility disappear and their life expectancies shorten—are looking to disrupt a status quo that has not worked for them. That’s what Sanders and Trump are both promising to do. And that’s the main reason why Bernie beat Hillary Clinton in yesterday’s West Virginia Democratic primary by 15.4 points. He carried every single county in the Mountaineer State, which by every...