HACKER VALLEY, W.Va. – It’s been a good holiday weekend for Holly River State Park in Webster County. All their cabins were booked for the Labor Day holiday which is excellent news for their bottom line.
The park’s been hit hard over the past year with natural disasters and technical failures. But for now, things are back up and running.
Ken McClintic, the superintendent at Holly River, said the problems all started last fall with Superstorm Sandy. The hurricane dropped several feet of snow on the park, downing trees into power lines and on roads. The entire park was without electricity for months.
“We’ve been off and on with power problems from the storm damage and so forth and it’s just hard to get any consistent visitation at the park,” explained McClintic.
When they repaired the electric lines, they buried them underground so a major storm couldn’t knock them out again. But this spring, a 40-year-old underground wire went kaput. It left the park in the dark once again.
“The old line fed the new line,” according to McClintic. “So when we had the problems with the old line, the power loss was all over the park.”
Crews were able to patch up the problem area and get electricity back on to 100-percent of Holly River. That allowed the staff to take reservations for the Labor Day holiday and they poured in. It’s a full house this holiday.
But McClintic stressed the repairs are just a temporary fix.
“We’re currently looking at replacing the entire 40-year-old system. It’s about close to two miles of underground cable.”
McClintic expects the project to get underway this fall and into the spring. That way the park will be ready for summer 2014.