CHARLESTON, W.Va. - One person was killed after a gymnasium roof collapsed during a wake Wednesday evening in McDowell County, as a storm with winds of more than 70 miles an hour ripped down trees and left thousands of West Virginians without power.

Patricia Lynn Sabo, 35, of Roderfield, was attending a wake for her brother at the Twin Branch Pentecostal Academy in Davy when the building collapsed and piece of debris killed her. The wake was for her brother, Kevin Shirley of Roderfield.

Davy Mayor Kenneth Gentry said the wake was in a church and the gymnasium was across the street.

"The way we understand it, the whole building fell and it was a piece of a wall that killed the girl," said a McDowell County dispatcher. State Police, who were investigating, could not be reached Wednesday night.

The building collapsed at 6:20 p.m., right as the storm front was passing through the area.

"The storm was, it was pretty violent," Gentry said. "It probably didn't last 10 or 15 minutes."

Another person was taken from the building with chest pains, but no further information was available on their condition, the dispatcher said.

Kevin Shirley, 29, was arrested over the weekend and allegedly grabbed a sheriff's deputy's gun and killed himself as he was being booked.

Across the state, more than 150,000 households and businesses were without power late Wednesday night after a line of severe thunderstorms rolled through in the late afternoon and early evening.

When the storm finally hit, it "moved through ... pretty quickly," said David Marsalek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston. "It entered the western end of [Kanawha County] around a quarter to six, but was through the eastern end around 6:30."

Wind gusts for the storms averaged between 40 to 50 miles per hour, but Yeager Airport saw gusts up to 63 miles per hour during the storm, he said. Wind gusts in Parkersburg were recorded at 73 miles an hour.

"With really big storm systems like this, you know what they're going to do, so we were pretty well prepared," Marsalek said. "The interesting thing is that it hit pretty much the whole state as it went through. It wasn't really localized to any one area."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - One person was killed after a gymnasium roof collapsed during a wake Wednesday evening in McDowell County, as a storm with winds of more than 70 miles an hour ripped down trees and left thousands of West Virginians without power.

Patricia Lynn Sabo, 35, of Roderfield, was attending a wake for her brother at the Twin Branch Pentecostal Academy in Davy when the building collapsed and piece of debris killed her. The wake was for her brother, Kevin Shirley of Roderfield.

Davy Mayor Kenneth Gentry said the wake was in a church and the gymnasium was across the street.

"The way we understand it, the whole building fell and it was a piece of a wall that killed the girl," said a McDowell County dispatcher. State Police, who were investigating, could not be reached Wednesday night.

The building collapsed at 6:20 p.m., right as the storm front was passing through the area.

"The storm was, it was pretty violent," Gentry said. "It probably didn't last 10 or 15 minutes."

Another person was taken from the building with chest pains, but no further information was available on their condition, the dispatcher said.

Kevin Shirley, 29, was arrested over the weekend and allegedly grabbed a sheriff's deputy's gun and killed himself as he was being booked.

Across the state, more than 150,000 households and businesses were without power late Wednesday night after a line of severe thunderstorms rolled through in the late afternoon and early evening.

When the storm finally hit, it "moved through ... pretty quickly," said David Marsalek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston. "It entered the western end of [Kanawha County] around a quarter to six, but was through the eastern end around 6:30."

Wind gusts for the storms averaged between 40 to 50 miles per hour, but Yeager Airport saw gusts up to 63 miles per hour during the storm, he said. Wind gusts in Parkersburg were recorded at 73 miles an hour.

"With really big storm systems like this, you know what they're going to do, so we were pretty well prepared," Marsalek said. "The interesting thing is that it hit pretty much the whole state as it went through. It wasn't really localized to any one area."

At about 11 p.m., 82,463 Appalachian Power customers in West Virginia were without power, including more than 70 percent of Appalachian Power customers in Nicholas County and nearly half of the customers in Lincoln County.

Other hard-hit counties were Kanawha (15,401 customers without power), Cabell (10,941 customers), Fayette (7,091 customers), Wayne (6,973 customers), Logan (5,838 customers), Mercer (5,825 customers), Putnam (4,314 customers) and Boone (3,978 customers).

Thousands were also without power in Clay, Greenbrier, Jackson, Mason, McDowell, Mingo, Monroe, Raleigh, Roane, Summers and Wyoming counties.

In addition, Allegheny Energy reported around 11 p.m. that 71,983 of their customers were without power, including thousands in Morgantown and Fairmont.

The Huntington Mall complex in Barboursville lost power during the storm. At 7 p.m., an employee there said backup emergency lighting was operating in the mall, but it was very dim and most stores were closing early.

Just after the storm passed through, Kanawha Metro 911 had more than 100 calls, some of which were still waiting to be answered by emergency personnel.

"We've had a couple of trees on houses, but nothing too major," said a Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatcher. "Charleston was hit pretty hard, but calls came in all over the county."

Emergency dispatchers throughout Southern West Virginia said they were swamped with storm-related calls.

"We've had more than 300 calls since noon, and it's all been weather-related," said a Boone County 911 dispatcher.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. issued a tornado watch for 31 counties in West Virginia earlier today, as the thin but powerful line of storms advanced on the state. Sunny skies and spring-like weather - the temperature reached 75 degrees in Charleston - gave way to increasing winds and clouds throughout the afternoon.

The weather service also issued a warning in most of the state for wind gusts that could exceed 60 mph. The high-wind warning was posted until 6 a.m. today in western areas and until 12:01 a.m. Friday in the Eastern Panhandle.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Kathryn Gregory at kathr...@wvgazette.com

or 304-348-5113.