CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Appalachian Power Company expects it will take several days to repair all of the damage caused by a tornado that moved through Kanawha County Monday night.
“This is some of the worst damage that we’ve seen in several years here,” Appalachian Power Company spokesman Phil Moye said. “Highest winds, biggest trees down, we’ve got a ton of broken poles.”
At 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, there were more than 7,500 customers in Kanawha County without power.
Moye said it will take a few days to untangle the trees from the lines and replace the poles that was damaged by an EF1 tornado.
Appalachian Power was both beginning repairs and doing damage assessment Tuesday morning.
“We have at least 300 places that we know of already that we’re going to have to get to–to make repairs before we get everybody back in service,” he said. “We’re still doing damage assessments.”
A community just east of the state capitol complex was hit hard. Moye said there are at least six poles down. Power at the capitol complex was taken off-line at noon Tuesday to help in those repair efforts. State workers were sent home for the day.
Moye said one good thing is the damage is confined to Kanawha County so the utility can bring in line crews from other areas.
“We have a ton of resources coming in here to help out because fortunately it was a fairly small geographic area but the damage is severe. So it’s good news, bad news, but we’re working on it and are going to take care of it as quickly was we can,” Moye said.
Appalachian Power anticipates having a better handle on restoration projections by the end of the day Wednesday.