Alert (March 11, 2026): Our TV translator in Flatwoods is experiencing technical issues. Our engineers are troubleshooting the problem. Thank you for your patience.
The hillbilly stereotype is frequently used to shame mountain people, but there are gentler versions, like Snuffy Smith, the long-running comic strip character. Snuffy Smith originally started out as a supporting character in his comic strip, which first launched in 1919 when Billy DeBeck created Barney Google. Artist Fred Lasswell was brought in during the ‘30s to create Snuffy Smith and his friends. And now the strip is written and drawn by John Rose, who lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
Brad Paisley Tours Flood Ravaged W.Va. High School
Share this Article
Country music star and West Virginia native Brad Paisley toured flood damaged areas of Kanawha County Thursday after committed to help the region recover from catastrophic flooding.
The floods, which left 10 counties named federal disaster areas, killed 23 people and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes.
Paisley made stops in the Clendenin area, joined by senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, which included a tour of the mud soaked band room of Herbert Hoover High School.
Credit Ashton Marra / West Virginia Legislative Photography
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Guitars, sheet music and other items litter the floor of the band classroom at Herbert Hoover High School. Seven feet of water filled the room during Friday, June 24, floods.
Covered in about an inch of mud, sheet music and instruments laid strewn across the classroom floor. The first floor of the building took on about 7 feet of flood water.
The clean-up process has begun in the school, but mud and water still stand in the band room, two gyms, cafeteria, and wood shop.
“Any photo doesn’t do justice to sort of this thing that goes on in your mind that you’re thinking, I shouldn’t be breathing this,” Paisley said after viewing the damage. “That feeling in a school is a terrible feeling.”
Kanawha County schools are scheduled to begin classes in early August.
Herbert Hoover principal Michael Kelley says both the county and his school are committed to starting classes on time. His students and his community need a return to normalcy, he added.
Add WVPB as a preferred source on Google to see more from our team
Two different groups, one representing West Virginia Republicans, the other from the Democratic Caucus of the West Virginia House of Delegates, are both calling on Gov. Patrick Morrisey to address skyrocketing gas prices.
BridgeValley Community and Technical College is expanding workforce development programs in highway construction and welding thanks to federal and state grants.
Two coal miners died in separate underground accidents last Thursday evening and Friday morning. The West Virginia Office of Miner’s Health Safety and Training has released its initial findings.
The economy is everything we buy or sell and services we use. It can be a broad category and most of us struggle to understand what it all means. The show "Planet Money" from NPR dives into those topics and attempts to make sense of it. And now, the show has published a book called Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life. We speak with the author and one of the program's hosts.
