MARLINTON, W.Va. — Power was expected to be fully restored in Pocahontas County by Tuesday night following a problem that knocked out service to more than 3,200 Mon Power customers late Monday.
The outage came as temperatures dropped below zero.
Officials with Mon Power said power to 2,500 homes and businesses in the Marlinton area had been restored as of 3 p.m. Tuesday and the remaining outages were scheduled to be fixed by 6 p.m.
Cold temperatures and gusty winds on Tuesday hampered efforts to locate the source of the power problem. It was narrowed down to a stretch of line near Thorny Creek, about three miles northeast of Marlinton.
Crews walked the line first thing Tuesday morning, but couldn’t immediately find the problem. Around 12 p.m., the winds finally died down enough to use a helicopter to fly over the line to try and locate the disruption.
What exactly caused the outage was not immediately clear.
Temperatures dropped to 21 degrees below zero in parts of Pocahontas County early Tuesday morning. With wind chills that neared 40 degrees below zero, it was one of the coldest nights in that rural area in several years.
Todd Meyers, spokesperson for Mon Power, said they understood the importance of getting those customers back on line as quickly as possible.
Progress on power outages was reported throughout West Virginia through the day Tuesday as crews worked in bitter temperatures.
Most customers of Mon Power, Potomac Edison and Appalachian Power in the Mountain State were scheduled to have power by Tuesday evening.