CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A fast-moving storm system hit West Virginia on Sunday and caught some off guard. Among those not expecting the high winds which accompanied the rainfall was Appalachian Power.
“We had some winds that were higher than we expected,” said Appalachian Power Spokesman Phil Moye. “That left around 17,000 customers out of power.”
Crews moved quickly to tackle the problem on Sunday and by Monday morning had the outages down to fewer than 1,000. Moye said the goal is to make sure everybody is back in power as fast as possible, especially with Christmas Eve on the horizon. They even brought in crews from unaffected areas to speed service.
“We’re very aware it’s right close to Christmas and people are making plans, fixing meals, and preparing for their Christmas celebration,” he said. “The good thing is we were able to move some of our crews into areas that were impacted and we got in some line contractors from Kentucky and Tennessee. We are doing everything we can.”
Moye expected outages to be fully restored by Monday night.