Appalachian Power Hurricane Florence Preparation Update:

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018 – 11:30 a.m.

Situation

Appalachian Power is planning its response to Hurricane Florence, a dangerous Category 4 storm that is scheduled to make landfall in the Carolinas on Friday morning. Due to the current storm path, strong winds and heavy rain will likely impact Appalachian Power’s Virginia service area beginning Friday and lasting throughout the weekend. Forecasts suggest a significant chance of major flooding with 6-10 inches of rainfall in eastern portions of the Virginia service territory. However, this could likely change as the hurricane’s inland track better comes into focus. At this time, there is less weather concern for Appalachian’s West Virginia service area.

Storm Preparation Efforts

Appalachian Power is monitoring the hurricane closely. Preparations are underway to move employees and contractors into areas likely to experience damage and outages from the hurricane. AEP crews from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan are ready to assist, if needed.

We’re currently planning staging areas for our crews, securing lodging and other logistical support.

Going forward, we will continue to make additional preparations for the storm and adjustments will be made if the forecast changes.

The large amounts of rainfall and high winds are concerning characteristics of this storm because it could hamper our ability to respond. We cannot safely make repairs while trees and limbs are still falling, and cannot safely work from buckets or on poles while wind gusts are still dangerously high.

For More Information

This update provides a broad overview of the company’s planning efforts. Customers can get specific information about the outages affecting their accounts via text message and/or email by subscribing to Appalachian Power outage alerts.  To sign up, please visit www.appalachianpower.com/alerts

Report an outage, check outage status, manage your accounts, enroll in paperless billing, and more by downloading the Appalachian Power mobile app at www.AppalachianPower.com/App.


A snapshot view of current outages is available anytime at www.appalachianpower.com. Go to the Outages and Problems section of the site and click “View Outage Map.”

Safety Message

If there is a chance of flash flooding, move immediately to higher ground. Flash floods are the number one cause of weather-related deaths in the United States. Just 6 inches of moving water can knock you down, and 2 feet of water can sweep your vehicle away.

Additional safety tips are posted at https://www.appalachianpower.com/outages/faq/OutageSafetyTips.aspx

Next Update:  Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 10 a.m.