Appalachian Power Storm Response Update
Friday, March 2, 2018 – 5:00 p.m.
Situation
Strong wind storms with gusts of up to 60 MPH continued to be an issue today throughout Appalachian Power’s service territory. Virginia is the hardest hit area with more than 69,000 customers without power because of downed wires, damaged poles and fallen trees.
In Botetourt County, multiple crews are installing a mobile transformer to restore power after the Trinity substation was knocked offline Thursday evening. The work is expected to conclude this evening. Four other Virginia substations are also offline, all due to transmission line issues.
The high winds also impacted West Virginia, where more than 4,000 customers are without power.
Weather
In Virginia, the high winds are weakening, but will still continue to be an issue tonight. The long duration of strong winds along with moisture-saturated soil will likely continue to cause healthy trees to fall from outside the rights-of-way and damage poles and wires.
Meanwhile, the threat of damaging winds has ended in West Virginia.
Outages
More than 73,000 customers are currently without power, with 69,000+ of those customers in Virginia. Areas in the state with large numbers of customers affected by the storms include:
Counties
# of Customers Out
Henry 11,616
Franklin 8,740
Lynchburg (City) 6,981
Patrick 6,376
Amherst 5,906
Bedford 4,540
Roanoke (City) 3,259
Storm Restoration Efforts
More than 1,000 workers, including local line employees, tree crews and contractors, are working to restore electric service. The company has secured some additional help from Kentucky Power and AEP Ohio. As outages are cleared, crews will move into more heavily damaged areas to assist in restoration.
Restoration Estimates
Customers in much of Appalachian Power’s West Virginia service area should have power restored by late tonight. In isolated areas with heavy damage, and for some customers in areas served by the company’s Beckley, Charleston, Glasgow, Hico and Walgrove service centers, restoration may extend to Saturday evening.
Wind-related storm damage is considerable in parts of Virginia east of Wytheville through Roanoke and Lynchburg, and high wind gusts there continue to hamper restoration efforts and cause new outages. In these areas we are not yet able to determine an overall restoration time.
In areas of Virginia served by the Glen Lyn, Pulaski and Wytheville service centers, we expect to have service restored by late Saturday night. Restoration is expected to be complete by late Sunday night for customers in areas served by the company’s Christiansburg, Floyd and Woodlawn service centers.
A snapshot view of current outages is available at www.appalachianpower.com/outagemap.
Photo: Getty Images