Staff reports Nearly 8,000 homes in western and Southern West Virginia were without power Saturday afternoon after an night of high winds and torrential rains caused flash flooding across a wide swaths of the state.Appalachian Power was reporting outages in 13 counties, ranging from Mercer County in the south, as far north as Nicholas County and west to Wayne County.More than 4,000 customers were without power in Kanawha County and the northern part of the county had widespread reports of swollen creeks and high water.A rain gauge at the Summersville Dam in Nicholas County reported 2.47 inches of rain in the 24-hour period ending at 7 a.m.