CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — From Boone County banker Lee Milam’s experience, each round of coal mine layoffs that hits southern West Virginia stifles his community’s already-fragile economy.

Thursday’s news was especially bitter. Coal giant Alpha Natural Resources revealed plans to shed 1,100 workers at 11 West Virginia surface mines and related operations by mid-October. In Boone, where about 2,400 people work in coal mining, two mines employing 462 people could be shuttered.