Across Virginia
Appalachian Power Storm Response Update
Sunday, January 12, 2020 – 12:30 p.m.
Situation
A strong weather system with rain and damaging winds blew across Appalachian Power’s service areas in waves Saturday, from afternoon through the night. By early Sunday morning more than 37,000 customers were without electric service as a result of storm damage. As expected, outages are widespread across much of the company’s service area.
Storm Response Efforts
Prior to the storm and based on the predicted widespread nature of this storm, we placed all of our storm response employees and contractors on alert and ready to work locally or travel to heavily-damaged areas.
Today we are following through on that plan, keeping crews and contractors in place where needed and shifting workers in areas with fewer outages to more heavily-damaged areas. We have been successful in securing additional help from outside our service area, including more than 50 line workers from North Carolina who are traveling to assist with restoration in the Kingsport area and in far southwest Virginia. Another 60 line workers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey are traveling to damaged areas of West Virginia and will begin assisting local employees this afternoon.
Restoration Estimates
In West Virginia, customers in Ohio and Marshall counties should have service restored by 10 p.m. tonight. In West Virginia’s southernmost areas, including McDowell, Mercer and Wyoming counties, service also should be restored by 10 p.m. tonight. In other areas of the state, which were harder hit by the storms, service should be restored to customers by 10 p.m. tomorrow.
In Virginia, customers in Dickenson, Grundy, Franklin and Bedford counties will have service restored by 6 p.m. tonight. Most other areas of the state, except as noted below, should have service restored by 10 p.m. tonight.
In Scott, Smyth and Washington counties in Virginia where damage is greater, as well as in Hawkins and Sullivan counties in Tennessee, the restoration effort is expected to conclude by 10 p.m.
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — An SUV hit a patch of ice on westbound Interstate 64 in Virginia, triggering a 75-car pileup last month, investigators said.
Virginia State Police said in a news release that the driver of a 2008 Chevrolet SUV spun out and was hit by other vehicles at the start of the pile-up shortly before 8 a.m. on Dec. 22, The Virginian-Pilot reported on Friday.
The crash occurred at the Queens Creek Bridge in Upper York County and shut down the interstate for over seven hours. Officials said 51 people in were injured.
State police initially reported 30 vehicles were involved in the crash before announcing the total of 75 on Friday.
An eight-vehicle crash happened on the eastbound side of I-64 near mile marker 240, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Anaya said on Dec. 22.
Ryan Rogers, a National Weather Service meteorologist at Wakefield, said visibility was poor around the time of the crash. At the nearest weather station in Williamsburg, fog had reduced visibility to less than a quarter-mile 20 minutes before the crash.
Rogers said it was possible freezing fog — supercooled water droplets that can freeze instantly — had impacted the bridge.
No charges have been filed, and police said the investigation continues.
Governor Northam today unveiled a proposal to give localities the power to determine the futures of their Confederate War memorials. Right now, state law says they cannot be removed or altered without General Assembly approval. It is part of a series of bills the governor calls bringing “historic justice” to Virginia. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Newly empowered Democratic leaders in Virginia pledged Thursday to let local governments remove Confederate monuments, but Gov. Ralph Northam said he’s still weighing what to do with one of the state’s most prominent ones — a towering statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
As Virginia wrestles with its Civil War legacy, Northam unveiled multiple initiatives Thursday that he said were aimed at telling a more accurate and inclusive version of the state’s past. They include more funding for historic African American cemeteries and cultural sites and the creation of new highway markers.
At a news conference with legislative leaders and state officials, the governor also said he supports removing a statue of Lee that Virginia contributed to the U.S. Capitol grounds, and amending an existing state law that prohibits local governments from removing Confederate War memorials.
“These monuments tell a particular version of history that doesn’t include everyone. In Virginia that version of history has been given prominence and authority for far too long,” Northam said.
But as for an imposing, state-owned statue of Lee that’s a centerpiece of a historic street in Richmond — once the capital city of the Confederacy — the governor said “that’s an ongoing discussion.”
Lee’s 21-foot (6-meter) statue rises atop a pedestal nearly twice that tall on a grassy circle along Monument Avenue, a prestigious boulevard in the heart of the city.
Monument Avenue, a National Historic Landmark, is also dotted with statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, generals J.E.B. Stuart and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Confederate naval officer Matthew Maury. A statue of black tennis hero Arthur Ashe, a Richmond native, was erected there too in 1996.
Northam’s spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky declined to elaborate further about what conversations are ongoing about the Lee monument’s future.
Del. Delores McQuinn, a Democrat who represents Richmond, said she agrees that more dialogue is needed about the monument.
“Personally, I want to see additional statutes and monuments put up that would reflect a balanced history,” she said.
Some who want to preserve Confederate monuments say they are works of art and say their removal would amount to erasing history. Critics say they inappropriately glorify the state’s legacy of racism and slavery.
House Minority Leader Republican Del. Todd Gilbert said his caucus has bigger priorities than stopping efforts to remove Confederate statues, but warned that Democrats could be setting themselves up for headaches down the road.
“We could go after Woodrow Wilson before this is over. I mean, he was one of the biggest racist presidents in U.S. history,” Gilbert said. “Where this ends, I don’t know.”
Conversations are ongoing in Richmond about what the city will do with the statues it owns. A study commission formed by Mayor Levar Stoney in 2017 issued nonbinding recommendations that called for removing a statue of Jefferson Davis, leaving the rest and adding historical context. That commission’s work was then rolled to a second one, which was scheduled to meet this week to discuss how to add the historical context.
Also this week, the Richmond City Council passed a resolution asking the General Assembly for the authority to decide the statues’ fate, after defeating similar measures twice in previous years.
MGN
Gas prices are starting the year — and the decade — higher than where they were on average one year ago. Prices now are the highest at this time of year since 2014, but experts say we are in a much better place than was the case when the previous decade got under way, and prices were often above $3 a gallon for several years. Gas Buddy predicts that barring major global disruptions, U.S. gas prices this year will average two cents a gallon less than in 2019. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
State Police say a driver heading along Interstate 77 was shot and seriously injured this morning when another vehicle pulled up alongside and someone inside it opened fire. Troopers say it happened a few miles south of the West Virginia line in Bland County. Police are looking for a gold Pontiac Montana minivan.
NEWS RELEASE: A Tazewell County man is being treated for serious injuries after being shot at while traveling on Interstate 77 in Bland County Friday morning. Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to call the Virginia State Police by dialing #77 or calling 276-228-3131 or be emailing questions@vsp.virginia.gov.
MGN
The Commonwealth of Virginia expects to purchase hundreds of miles of railroad track and right of way later this year. The proposed agreement with CSX rail includes purchase of a secondary line from Clifton Forge to the Richmond area. State transportation officials say it could eventually lead to regional east-west regional passenger service through intermediate cities that include Staunton and Richmond. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
HENRICO, Va. (AP) — Police in a central Virginia county are looking for a motorist whom they believe struck and killed an 89-year-old pedestrian.The body of Rosa Brown was found Friday morning against a white picket fence, located about a block from where she lived in Henrico County, news outlets reported. Police were working to determine exactly when she was hit. Two people reported hearing a thud early Thursday evening.It appears a car traveling south on East Laburnum Avenue struck the woman, and the driver didn’t stop, according to Henrico County Police Division Lt. Matt Pecka. He said officers haven’t determined whether heavy fog late Thursday and Friday was a factor in the crash or the body’s delayed discovery.The collision marked the 10th pedestrian fatality this year in Henrico County, which has surpassed every other Richmond-area locality in pedestrian deaths two years in a row, according to Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles data.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — One of the largest school districts in the United States has announced that it will allow students one excused absence per school year to participate civic activities such as protests.
Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia plans to start allowing the absences Jan. 27, 2020, news outlets reported. The district is the largest school system in the state.
Students in seventh through 12th grades can use the day for “civic engagement activities” such as attending marches or meeting with lawmakers, according to district spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.
The new policy was introduced by Fairfax School Board member Ryan McElveen, according to The Washington Post. He says the rule may be the first of its kind in the U.S.
“I think we’re setting the stage for the rest of the nation with this,” McElveen said. “It’s a dawning of a new day in student activism, and school systems everywhere are going to have to be responsive to it.”
But, some experts told the Post that skipping school to attend protests tends to favor liberal causes.
“Kids on the right who are active, they tend to be doing it by preparing to run for school board, or being aides in legislature,” said Meira Levinson, a Harvard University professor who studies education.
“People who call themselves conservatives probably do still count respecting authority — staying in school — as a crucial and central tenet of the social order,” said Thai Jones, a lecturer at Columbia University who studies radical social movements.
Students must give at least two days notice before the absence, school officials said. A parent or guardian has to give permission and students must fill out a form to explain the reason they’re missing school, McElveen said.
To address worries about accreditation, the student must stop by their school campus at least once on the day of their excused absence, McElveen said.
“The school board felt that this was something that could be formalized and wanted to put it in writing,” Caldwell told WTOP-FM. “There were many students who were engaged and have been engaged and it was decided that it was time to go ahead and put into place.”
Oakton High School senior Wendy Gao, 18, leads several groups that fight climate change and has missed five days of school in recent months to participate in activism. She told the Post she hopes the new policy will increase the number of students who attend climate strikes.
“Skipping school and business as usual is to show that there’s no point in going to school if we are having our future taken away from us,” she said. “There’s not a point to our education if we’re not going to be alive in 10 years, 20 years, the end of the century.”
Photo: Virginia Breeze facebook
State-sponsored intercity bus service is proving to be so successful that more is already in the works for next year. Virginia Breeze bus service started in late 2017 — Blacksburg to Washington — and first-year ridership nearly tripled projections. State transportation officials will initiate two new routes in 2020, one connecting Southside cities with Richmond, the other from Danville and Lynchburg to D.C. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – A Virginia lawmaker wants to narrow the definition of milk as something that comes only from a “healthy hooved animal.” The Virginian Pilot reports that Virginia Beach Republican Del. Barry Knight is pushing legislation that would ban makers of increasingly popular products like soy milk and almond milk from marketing their products as “milk.” Knight says he’s trying to protect the state’s dairy farmers and his legislation is similar to what has passed in other states. Opponents of the legislation say the legislation is unnecessary and hurts competition. Knight’s bill defines milk as the “lacteal secretion” from a list of animals that includes cows, water buffalo, sheep, goats, yaks, deer, reindeer, moose, horses and donkeys.