2010: PALESTINE AREA STRUCK BY TORNADO - Church Heavily Damaged

(04/07/2024)
A second Wirt County area - Palestine - received the brunt of heavy tornado-like winds that came up the Little Kanawha Valley Thursday night.

The National Weather Service now says Palestine was struck by a tornado.

(See earlier Herald story about Burning Springs).

Rev. Dale Cunningham said the 200-year-old Bethesda Baptist Church in the center of the village was heavily damaged.

The minister said it lifted the roof of the church and set it back down, windows being knocked out.

"We've been cleaning the building today, but we're going to have to decide about structural damage before we hold services Sunday," Cunningham said.

"You could see the path where the storm struck," he said, knocking down trees, knocking out windows and damaging roofs.

Some porches were ripped from houses.

"There's sheet metal everywhere," Cunningham concluded.