Listen Now: Morning News

West Virginia dodges a bullet with Jonas

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As winter storm Jonas exited West Virginia on Saturday night, power company crews were standing down.  Appalachian Power had secured a thousand contract personnel in anticipation of a major outage and difficult restoration.  That part of the storm prediction never materialized.

“The ground temperatures were a little colder and it helped out tremendously,”said Appalachian Power Spokesman Phil Moye. “The snow wasn’t able to stick to the trees and we didn’t have the moisture density that would enable the snow to stay on the trees.”

Most of the contract linemen were released from duty to return to their homes on Sunday.  There was one significant outage on Sunday evening when a transformer failed in Jackson County and left 3,200 customers in the dark.  Moye said ironically that was unrelated to the weather.

“With all the snow we had, oddly enough our biggest outage was due to an equipment failure at one of our substations in Jackson County,”  said Moye.

Crews worked Sunday night and Monday morning to replace the blown transformer.  Moye said West Virginia was literally just a few degrees away from a major catastrophe, but fortunately it never materialized.

“We’ve had several storms when we’ve had far less storms and we’ve had more problems,” he said. “What it all boils down to is how heavy and wet is that  snow.”





More News

News
MetroNews This Morning 3-28-24
Summary of West Virginia news/sports/weather for Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024 - 6:25 am
News
PSC approves settlements involving Mon Power, net-metering cases
Rate increase went into effect Tuesday.
March 27, 2024 - 9:42 pm
News
Speakers at Focus Forward symposium discuss AI capabilities in West Virginia
The event was organized by the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
March 27, 2024 - 8:30 pm
News
Justice vetoes vaccination exemption bill, draws praise from healthcare groups
Educational and healthcare organizations banded together to urge a veto.
March 27, 2024 - 6:35 pm