11,000 Virginia homes without power after Thursday's Ice storm

AEP gave an update as of 10:15 Saturday

(Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved)

Appalachian Power Company said Saturday that progress has been made to repair electrical facilities that were damaged after an ice storm hit Virginia and southeastern West Virginia on Thursday. 

About 20,000 customers are currently without power. Most of those customers, more than 11,000, are in Virginia. According to AEP, much of the outage issues remain in the higher elevation areas of it's Virginia service territory, including Floyd, Carroll and Patrick counties and the Bent Mountain area of Roanoke County, and in West Virginia in Raleigh and Mercer counties, such as at Flat Top Mountain.

Recommended Videos



Helicopters are being used in damage assessment to help reach heavily wooded areas and higher elevations. AEP said those assessments have shown downed lines and broken poles caused by trees that have fallen under the weight of the ice. New outages occurred throughout the day Friday because of the extended time the weight of the ice has been on branches and trees.  
 
Outages by the number

  • Floyd     4,007
  • Carroll    3,106
  • Grayson    1,529
  • Patrick    1,510
  • Montgomery    920

In West Virginia, more than 8,000 customers are without power, with the largest concentration of customer outages in:
    
Outages by the number

  • Raleigh    4,769
  • Mercer    1,697
  • Summers    866


AEP said Saturday's weather forecast should help restoration efforts. 


About 1,300 workers are taking part in the restoration efforts. Appalachian Power has moved company and contract line workers from parts of West Virginia and Tennessee that were unaffected by the storm to assist local crews with damage assessment and service restoration. The company has also secured some additional help from Kentucky Power.

Appalachian Power said it expects to make good progress in service restoration Saturday, so many customers will see their power restored well before the estimated restoration completion times below. 

Virginia

  • Roanoke County, except for the Bent Mountain area, should be restored by 4 p.m. Saturday.
  • On Sunday, Carroll and Grayson counties should have power restored by 6 p.m. 
  • Floyd, Patrick and the Bent Mountain area of Roanoke County will have power restored by 10 p.m. Sunday.  

Originally, Patrick, Floyd and the Bent Mountain area of Roanoke County counties were scheduled to be restored Saturday, but additional damage discovered during assessments pushed the restoration times to Sunday. This type of damage and changes to restoration times are typical in the aftermath of an ice storm.

For More Information
Customers who do not have power may check for updated restoration times and other information by:

•             Going to the outage map at www.AppalachianPower.com/outagemap 
•             Signing up for outage alerts at www.appalachianpower.com/account/alerts/   
•             Calling the Appalachian Power customer center at 1-800-956-4237
 


About the Author:

Watch Rachel weekdays during 10 News at 5:30, 6 and 7 p.m.