W. Va. town has 26 heroin ODs in five hours

On Monday, August 15, the West Virginia town of Huntingdon, with a population of just 50,000, had 26 drug overdoses within a span of five hours, according to the Carroll County Times in Maryland. 

West Virginia has the nation's worst overdose rate, with 35 of every 100,000 residents dying each year. The rate in Huntingdon is three times as high.

On this day, however, the amount of overdoses was unprecedented for the area. Cabell County, where Huntingdon is located, normally sees just 18 to 20 overdose calls a week, according to local officials.

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The overdose calls to emergency responders began around 3:21 p.m., when a call for 'people showing up and dying' came in over the radio. When responders got to the home, they found seven people who had overdosed on what appeared to be a dangerous heroin concoction.

The calls would keep coming in until 8:33 p.m. The ages of the overdose victims when from people in their 20s all the way to their 50s.

Read the full story at the Carroll County Times.