CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mountaineer Gas has restored service to 1,120 customers on Charleston’s West Side with at least a few hundred customers to go ahead of Thanksgiving.
More than 50 crews will continue going door-to-door through the holiday weekend to drain water from homes and businesses that were impacted by the Nov. 10 water main break. The company has said the power from the break of the high pressure water line bore a hole in its distribution line.
Mountaineer Gas Senior Vice President Moses Skaff said on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline” the company is discovering additional customers impacted by the water who were not part of the original count as the main line system is restored.
“We’re continuing to get water out of our system. That’s why you’ll see these numbers growing, but they’re going to start to slow down as we’re continuing to purge the water,” Skaff said.
About 95 percent of the 46-miles of line impacted by the water has been restored as of Wednesday. It’s expected to take until Sunday to have the main line system restored.
Skaff said they need to clear their main line completely before moving on to other lines.
“The next question is purging those house lines. We can get to that fairly quickly once we get the main on, but then the question is what kind of damage occurred inside the home to people’s appliances?” he said.
Much of the work is now focused on replacing appliances, including furnaces, stoves and hot water tanks that were damaged when the water rushed in through the gas lines. Mountaineer Gas is covering those costs which is usually the responsibility of the customer.
“We’re finding out that more appliances are being affected than what we originally realized,” Skaff said. “If this was a normal situation without the water, we’d have everyone restored by now.”
Charleston City Councilman Larry Moore was among the original 1,100 customers who lost natural gas service. He said the West Side was placed under a Boil Water Advisory; however, they couldn’t boil water on stovetops without gas.
“You had to boil your water, but you couldn’t boil your water because you had no gas, so you were sitting around like what am I going to do?” Moore said on the Dave Allen Show heard on MetroNews flagship station 580-WCHS Wednesday.
Moore gave a lot of credit to Mountaineer Gas, Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin, the United Way of Central West Virginia and other organizations who have stepped up to provide space heaters, blankets and meals to families in need over the last two weeks.
“Everybody has been helping out and taking care of everybody,” he said, adding more needs to be done to prevent future outages.
Moore said it starts with the West Side infrastructure.
“I just think the years of neglect sometimes builds upon these things,” he said.
Gov. Jim Justice on Tuesday blamed West Virginia American Water Company, again, for the outages. Skaff said an investigation by the state Public Service Commission will determine the cause of what actually happened.
“That’s the $64 million question. The only thing I can say on that is that it may be better answered by the water company,” Skaff said. “We’re not going to let this issue defeat us.”
WVAWC Senior Manager of Government and External Affairs Megan Hannah told MetroNews Tuesday the company is supporting recovery efforts but is unable to assist with natural gas restoration.
Friday will mark two weeks since the gas went out on the West Side.