Situation
Appalachian Power Company (APCo) crews continued their focus on storm restoration overnight and made significant progress following back-to-back rounds of severe weather that moved through West Virginia and Virginia this week. As of this morning, crews have restored service to 79,000 customers across 1,500 outage locations since the storm response began late Monday, Aug. 10.
In West Virginia’s hardest-hit areas, approximately 2,700 customers remain without power. Crews are working today to complete the final repairs, and these remaining customers are expected to have service restored today.
The storms brought damaging winds, heavy rain and saturated ground conditions that caused widespread damage, including broken poles, downed trees and damaged electrical equipment. Crews have worked around the clock to assess damage, make repairs and restore service as quickly and safely as possible.
Outages
The number of remaining outages has continued to decline overnight as crews completed repairs and moved into the final stage of restoration. The largest remaining concentrations are in West Virginia communities that experienced the most extensive storm damage.
Crews are working in the remaining outage pockets today to complete complex repairs and restore power to customers still without service.
Storm Response Efforts
Thousands of line and forestry workers have supported the restoration effort, clearing storm debris, replacing damaged equipment and rebuilding parts of the electric system impacted by the severe weather. Their continued work overnight helped move the response into its final phase.
Restoration work has followed APCo’s established process, with priority given first to critical facilities that support public health and safety, followed by repairs that restore power to the largest groups of customers before moving to smaller outages and individual service issues.
Weather Conditions
Weather conditions are favorable for the final stage of service restoration. Appalachian Power’s Storm Response Team continues to monitor conditions and remains ready to respond if additional scattered storms create new outages.
Safety
Customers should stay away from all downed lines and treat them as energized and dangerous. Do not touch fallen power lines, sparking equipment or anything a line may be touching. Keep children and pets safely away from these areas.
Customers using generators should follow all manufacturer instructions. Generators should never be plugged into a wall outlet and should only be operated outdoors, away from windows and doors. Working carbon monoxide detectors should also be in place.
More safety information is available at AppalachianPower.com/Safety.
Estimated Times of Restoration (ETRs)
Appalachian Power expects the remaining customers without service in West Virginia’s hardest-hit areas to have power restored today, Thursday, Aug. 13. Customers can find the latest estimated restoration times on the company’s real-time outage map at AppalachianPower.com.
For More Information
Customers can receive outage information specific to their account by signing up for Appalachian Power’s Outage Alerts by text message or email. To enroll, visit AppalachianPower.com/Alerts.
Current outage information and estimated restoration times are available anytime on Appalachian Power’s Outage Map.
Final Update: This is the final planned storm response update for this event.