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:

A snapshot view of current outages is available at www.appalachianpower.com/outagemap.