Small, rural areas have already been experiencing loss in the form of jobs, population and overdoses for years. The COVID-19 pandemic has added its own tragedies and struggles for areas that were already hurting.
Chad Akers, the owner of the Akers-James Funeral Homes, said for a small county like Logan, the deaths have been devastating.
“Logan is a small town. There’s several funeral homes in Logan. If we do 10 funerals a month, that’s a pretty good month,” Akers said. “In August and September, we did over 35 funerals.”
Logan County has a population of about 32,000 according to 2020 Census data. As of Monday, it has lost 112 people to COVID-19, giving the county the third highest death rate by population in the state.
“I couldn’t tell you if there’s anybody in this county that doesn’t know someone who has died from COVID,” Akers said.
When Logan Health Department Administrator Steve Browning looks at the data, it is not just the numbers he sees.
“That death rate stuff is tough for me,” Browning said. “My father’s on that list. He passed in January.”
It is devastating but also unusual for a county its size. Monongalia County, for example, has a population that triples Logan’s at 105,822. So far, it has experienced fewer deaths than Logan County with 108.
Browning said he suspects it has something to do with Logan’s high rate of risk factors as he reads off a 2018 study from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
“Cardiovascular disease: West Virginia number one again and Logan County in the top of that,” he said. “Diabetes: West Virginia was second in the nation. Logan was one of the four worst counties in the state for that as well.”
The study also has Logan as one of the worst counties in the state for respiratory illnesses and obesity - all risk factors for COVID-19.
While this is going on, Logan County is still fighting other battles, too.
“The loss of population. The loss of jobs. The drug epidemic, which is another thing that we fight very day around here. A lot of people work hard to fight that and try to help that problem,” Akers said.
Like other rural counties once dependent on the coal industry, Logan County's population has dwindled. Since 2010, the 2020 Census data shows a loss of 5,055.
Also, in 2020, overdose deaths spiked to 162 in Logan putting it just directly behind Cabell for the highest number of those deaths.
“We can’t take much more loss here,” Akers said.
From the first death that rocked the entire county, 25-year-old TJ “Teddy” Nelson, to now with deaths at 112, sitting down with these families, some who have lost multiple people, does not get any easier, Akers said.
“It was tough,” Akers said getting choked up. “But we got through it. And we’ll get through it again.”
For Akers and Browning, it hits home but because it is home. They say they have to keep moving forward.
Browning said Logan County was making strides before the pandemic and believes it can get back there in the end because it has the right leaders in place.
“Those are all resilient people. It’s going to be devastating, but Logan County, it’s going to be back as it was,” Browning said.
Akers said from here, everyone has to do their part.
“Wear a mask and get vaccinated. I can’t push that enough,” Akers said. “Because yes, we are in this business, but we don’t need your business right now. We want everybody to be healthy and get this county back to where it needs to be, back to some normalcy.”