University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism blog, The Rural Blog, highlighted the work of small, rural newspapers to continue serving their communities in the aftermath of the destructive June 29 derecho that cut a 400-mile-long path from Indiana to Virginia.

When residents of Ohio, West Virginia and northwestern Virginia woke up last Saturday, June 30, they did not expect to see as much damage as they did. The storm that moved through the region the night before knocked out power, but they assumed it would be back on by the next day. What they didn't know was that the storm wreaked havoc for more than 400 miles from Indiana to the middle of Virginia, knocking out power and phone lines, toppling cell phone towers, demolishing trees and killing Internet service. It was a derecho, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's term for "a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms." The Pocahontas Times of Marlinton, W.Va., ran this time-lapse radar image, ending just as the storm hit Marlinton:

In times of natural disaster, it is often local journalists who first put boots to the ground to get information out to their community in spite of what may seem like insurmountable odds.

Read the full story from The Rural Blog:
http://irjci.blogspot.com/2012/07/newspapers-in-virginias-hit-hard-by.html