By George Porter
Situation
Appalachian Power crews have restored electric service to 65% of its customers who lost power Sunday across parts of its service area. Heavy rains and damaging winds caused outages, toppling trees and company equipment. Areas impacted by outages saw average wind speeds of 45 mph, with some reaching wind highs of nearly 70 mph.
Approximately 19,000 customers lost power due to the storm, with the majority of those customers in West Virginia.
Outages
- At 9 a.m., 6,400 Appalachian Power customers in West Virginia are without electric service. Areas with the heaviest damage include Boone, Cabell, Jackson, Marshall and Ohio counties.
- Just over 60 percent of the 16,800 West Virginia customers impacted by the storm have had service restored.
- Crews have restored power to nearly all 2,200 Virginia customers who lost power due to the storm.
- At the peak, just over 19,000 customers were without power.
Restoration Estimates
The estimated times of restoration (ETR) are when Appalachian Power expects to have 90% or more customers restored. Approximate outage counts and ETRs are:
| Outage Count | ETR | |
| West Virginia Total | 6,300 | |
| Madison | 380 | 10 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Charleston | 360 | 10 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Beckley | 260 | 10 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Williamson | 200 | 10 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Wheeling | 2,000 | 11 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Huntington | 870 | 11 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Ripley | 600 | 11 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Hamlin | 520 | 11 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Milton | 490 | 11 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Wayne | 450 | 11 p.m., Dec. 30 |
| Point Pleasant | 170 | 11 p.m., Dec. 30 |
Storm Response Efforts
- Appalachian Power planned for outages from this windstorm and is now carrying out its plan to restore electric service safely.
- Company line employees and contractors are working in their areas to assist with repairs. Virginia crews traveled to the harder-hit areas of West Virginia to assist in restoration.
Weather
- The storm system ushered in heavy rains that saturated the ground just before strong wings followed, downing trees and company equipment.
- Conditions are favorable today for restoration work; however, crews will continue to monitor wind speeds to ensure the safety of employees and customers during restoration work.
- Extreme cold temperatures can cause line overload problems when trying to restore a large number of customers. In many cases, we must restore large outages in smaller groups, letting the electric load settle before restoring additional customers. Customers with outages can assist by turning off large electric users, such as heaters and water heaters until 15 or more minutes after power has been restored.
Safety Messages
- All downed lines are dangerous — they carry an electric current that can cause serious or even fatal injuries. Stay away to stay alive. If you encounter a fallen wire, keep yourself and others away from it and anything it may be touching, and call 911 and Appalachian Power at 1-800-956-4237 immediately.
- If you plan to use an alternate heat source, ensure it is in good working order and follow all safety precautions. Only operate lanterns, heaters, fuel-fired stoves or burn charcoal with proper ventilation to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning and fires.
- If you use a portable or RV generator, do not plug the generator into your circuit box.
- Additional safety tips are posted at AppalachianPower.com/safety.
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, visit AppalachianPower.com/alerts.
A snapshot view of current outages is available anytime at AppalachianPower.com.
