Appalachian Power Storm Response Update
Monday, March 26, 2018 – 10:30 a.m.
Situation
Progress is being made to restore electric service following a snow storm that hit Appalachian Power’s southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia service territories Saturday night. As much as 15” of heavy, wet snow fell in some areas causing trees and limbs to buckle under the weight, leading to mass outages. It was the most significant snowstorm to hit the area since Superstorm Sandy in West Virginia in 2012.
With sunny weather and temperatures in the 50s, crews expect to make some headway throughout the day. But road access issues still remain, especially on secondary roads, which could hinder restoration efforts.
Outages
Nearly 58,000 customers are currently without power. Most of those customers, around 50,000, are in Virginia. Areas of Virginia with large numbers of customers affected by the storms include:
Counties | # of Customers Out |
Bland | 2,732 |
Carroll | 1,276 |
Floyd | 2,334 |
Franklin | 3,104 |
Giles | 5,531 |
Henry | 3,961 |
Montgomery | 10,864 |
Patrick | 1,935 |
Pulaski | 11,778 |
Tazewell | 733 |
Wythe | 5,358 |
In West Virginia, about 7,500 customers are without power, with the largest concentration of customer outages in:
Counties | # of Customers Out |
McDowell | 1,927 |
Mercer | 2,998 |
Mingo | 675 |
Wyoming | 738 |
Storm Restoration Efforts
While progress continues in areas with less damage and less snowfall, there is still a great amount of damage to assess and repair. More than 1,000 workers, including local line employees, tree crews and contractors, are working to restore electric service. Today, additional workers from outside Appalachian Power’s service area will arrive in the most heavily damaged areas.
Line crews are working on outages that affect large numbers of customers. At the same time damage assessors are physically patrolling lines, identifying damaged areas and determining the resources needed to make repairs.
Crews are utilizing multiple helicopters to help with line assessments.
Restoration Estimates
In some areas, restoration will be slow because of issues related to secondary road access. About 95 percent of customers are expected to be restored along the estimated times below, but scattered outages where damage is most severe could remain into Friday.
In Virginia, areas with estimated restoration dates/times are:
Today by 4 p.m.
City of Roanoke
Roanoke County
Tazewell County
Today by midnight
Franklin County
Tuesday by midnight
Henry County
Patrick County
Wednesday by midnight
Carroll County
Floyd County
Thursday by midnight
Bland County
Giles County
Montgomery County
Pulaski County
Wythe County
In West Virginia, areas with estimated restoration dates/times are:
Tuesday by midnight
McDowell County
Wyoming County
Wednesday by midnight
Mercer County
Safety Message
Let us know if you’re using a generator – this protects you and our line workers as they work to restore power. Additional safety tips are posted at https://www.appalachianpower.com/outages/faq/OutageSafetyTips.aspx.
For More Information
Customers who do not have power may check for an updated restoration time and other information by:
- Going to the outage map atwww.AppalachianPower.com/outagemap
- Downloading the AEP mobile app in Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store.
- Signing up for outage alerts atwww.appalachianpower.com/account/alerts/
- Calling the Appalachian Power customer center at 1-800-956-4237
A snapshot view of current outages is available at www.appalachianpower.com/outagemap.