Sunday, February 6, 2022
Situation
Power is back on to half of the 13,000 customers in the Wheeling area who lost electric service as a result of Thursday’s storm event. Precipitation and freezing temperatures left up to ½ inch of ice in the Northern Panhandle and caused substantial damage to Appalachian Power’s facilities.
Outages
Crews continue to make significant progress on service restoration despite challenging weather and travel conditions. Crews have restored service to 6,600 customers in the Wheeling area affected by the storm.
There are 249 places where repairs must be made to restore power to the remaining 6,400 customers. The number of locations where repairs must be made has increased throughout the restoration effort as crews find additional damage while making repairs.
Storm Response Efforts
Additional workers were brought in today to assist with repairs bringing the number of field personnel dedicated to storm restoration to 327.
Downed lines are the primary cause of outages in the area.
Workers are experiencing access issues on secondary roads due to ice-covered roadways and fallen trees in their path. In some locations, crews are utilizing bulldozers and track diggers to navigate through the ice and gain access to our facilities.
As heavy ice build-up on our facilities lingers due to freezing temperatures, additional damage may occur due to fallen trees and limbs.
Restoration Estimates
Crews are in the field and restoring customers as safely and quickly as possible, and will make more progress as the weather situation improves. We expect the majority of customers in the Wheeling area to be restored by Monday evening, February 7; however, most customers will be restored prior to that time. In some isolated cases, restoration may extend beyond this date and we will update these customers.
For the best available information on each specific outage, click the outage location on Appalachian Power’s Outage Map.
Weather
Freezing temperatures continue this morning in the Northern Panhandle. However, the forecast for this afternoon and Monday calls for more favorable working conditions with dry weather and temperatures above freezing.
Safety Messages
Ice storms can cause damage that downs power lines. Customers should treat all downed lines as live power lines and stay away from them.
Keep children and pets away from fallen lines and anything the lines may touch.
Never remove debris that’s within 10 feet of a power line.
Employees are observing COVID-19 safety precautions as they go about restoring service in order to protect themselves, our customers and the public. Please protect yourself and our employees and contractors by not approaching them as they work to restore power. Maintaining social distancing is the best way you can help our crews.
Additional safety tips are posted at https://www.appalachianpower.com/safety/
Report an Outage
Visit Appalachian Power.com to report an outage online anytime.
For More Information
For information on a specific outage, check Appalachian Power’s Outage Map.
Next Update: Monday, February 7, 11:00 a.m.
