Appalachian Power Storm Response Update: Saturday, November 17, 2018 – 10:15 a.m.
Situation
Progress has been made to repair electrical facilities that were damaged after an ice storm hit Virginia and southeastern West Virginia on Thursday. Much of the outage issues remain in the higher elevation areas of our Virginia service territory, including Floyd, Carroll and Patrick counties and the Bent Mountain area of Roanoke County, and in West Virginia in Raleigh and Mercer counties, such as at Flat Top Mountain.
Helicopters are being used in damage assessment to help reach heavily wooded areas and higher elevations. These assessments have shown downed lines and broken poles caused by trees that have fallen under the weight of the ice. New outages occurred throughout the day yesterday because of the extended time the weight of the ice has been on branches and trees.
Outages
About 20,000 customers are currently without power. Most of those customers, more than 11,000, are in Virginia. Areas of Virginia with large numbers of customers affected by the storms include:
| Counties | # of Customers Out |
| Floyd | 4,007 |
| Carroll | 3,106 |
| Grayson | 1,529 |
| Patrick | 1,510 |
| Montgomery | 920 |
In West Virginia, more than 8,000 customers are without power, with the largest concentration of customer outages in:
| Counties | # of Customers Out |
| Raleigh | 4,769 |
| Mercer | 1,697 |
| Summers | 866 |
Weather
Today’s weather calls for clear skies and warmer temperatures, which should help restoration efforts.
Storm Response Efforts
About 1,300 workers are taking part in the restoration efforts. Appalachian Power has moved company and contract line workers from parts of West Virginia and Tennessee that were unaffected by the storm to assist local crews with damage assessment and service restoration. The company has also secured some additional help from Kentucky Power.
Restoration Estimates
Appalachian Power expects to make good progress in service restoration today, so many customers will see their power restored well before the estimated restoration completion times below.
Virginia
Today, Roanoke County, except for the Bent Mountain area, should be restored by 4 p.m.
On Sunday, Carroll and Grayson counties should have power restored by 6 p.m.
Floyd, Patrick and the Bent Mountain area of Roanoke County will have power restored by 10 p.m. Sunday.
Originally, Patrick, Floyd and the Bent Mountain area of Roanoke County counties were scheduled to be restored today, but additional damage discovered during assessments pushed the restoration times to Sunday. This type of damage and changes to restoration times are typical in the aftermath of an ice storm.
West Virginia
Today, Mercer County should have power restored by 10 p.m.
On Sunday, Fayette, Raleigh and Summers counties should have power restored by 10 p.m.
New restoration times may be available for the outages in a specific area. Check the outage map at www.AppalachianPower/outagemap for more info.
Safety Message
Customers should treat all downed lines as live power lines and stay away from them. Never touch downed power lines or sparking equipment. Keep children and pets away from fallen lines and anything the lines may touch.
More 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 updated restoration times and other information by:
- Going to the outage map atwww.AppalachianPower.com/outagemap
- Downloading the Appalachian Power 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
