Tuesday Evening, April 2, 2024 – 7:30 p.m.
Situation
Severe weather that swept across Appalachian Power’s West Virginia service territory earlier today caused extensive damage to the company’s transmission and distribution facilities. Multiple stations, circuits and equipment necessary for the safe delivery of power were damaged during the high wind and heavy rain event, which left more than 120,000 customers without electric service.
Outages
· Currently about 118,000 customers in West Virginia are without power.
· Additional outages could occur as storm activity continues overnight.
Storm Response Efforts
- Crews are working to restore power on large known outages, and damage assessors are patrolling lines in damaged areas to determine resources needed to make repairs.
- Helicopters and drones will be utilized to help with damage assessment starting tomorrow morning, weather permitting.
- Appalachian Power planned for outages from this storm by having more than 200 company and contract workers on storm response alert. Those workers began traveling earlier today to assist with repairs in areas with heavy damage.
- An additional 1,000-plus storm response workers from multiple states have been mobilized to assist in West Virginia.
Restoration Estimates
- Wednesday, April 3, 11 p.m. for approximately 90 percent of customers in Boone, Logan, Mingo and Raleigh counties.
- Thursday, April 4, 11 p.m. for approximately 90 percent of customers in Cabell, Clay, Fayette, Greenbrier, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason, Nicholas, Putnam, Roane and Wayne counties.
- Most customers currently without service will have power restored before the overall estimates stated above. Customers are encouraged to view the company’s outage map or sign up for outage alerts for information on their specific outage.
- Restoration may extend further in isolated instances where extensive repairs are needed.
- Additional severe weather and associated outages are expected through tonight, which could extend current overall estimates.
Weather
- Heavy rain is forecast overnight, which may create additional outages.
- Wind gusts over 30 mph create unsafe conditions for working aloft in buckets, which could slow restoration efforts in some areas.
Safety Message
Wind storms can cause damage that downs power lines. 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.
Click here for additional safety tips.
For More Information
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 Appalachian Power alerts.
A snapshot view of current outages is available anytime by visiting Appalachian Power’s Outage Map.
