CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It’s going to take crews working for Appalachian Power several days to restore power to approximately 90,000 customers who lost it during the quick but powerful line of storms that moved through the company’s West Virginia service area Wednesday.
First Energy companies Potomac Edison and Mon Power reported a total of more than 24,000 customers without service in north central and eastern counties Wednesday evening.
It’s one of the worst wind storms Appalachian Power has had to deal with in several years, according to Appalachian Power spokesman Phil Moye.
“For the short amount of time it spent in each area it did a lot of damage,” Moye said.
Initially the company determined there had been 60 distribution circuits, 20 distribution stations and more than 20 transmission lines impacted. That amount of damage is going to take a lot of time to repair, Moye said.
“It’s not something we can wake up tomorrow and everything is going to be fixed. It’s going to take a lot of physical effort. It’s going to be a multi-day event,” he said.
The company will be able to almost immediately double the number of crews members by calling in Appalachian Power line crews from unaffected areas in Virginia. They will also bring in crews from other companies, according to Moye.
“Damage was widespread enough and extensive enough that we are going to need even more help than just moving crews from other Appalachian Power locations,” Moye said.
As of late Wednesday afternoon the company said the most impacted areas included:
The most severely affected areas include:
Fayette County (16,206 customers out)
Logan County (8,903 customers out)
Kanawha County (7,459 customers out)
Mingo County (6,975 customers out)
McDowell County (6,361 customers out)
Raleigh County (6,017 customers out)
Wayne County (5,690 customers out)
Wyoming County (5,478 customers out)
Putnam County (4,943 customers out)
Mercer County (4,204 customers out)
Boone County (3,949 customers out)