PRINCETON, W.Va. — Appalachian Power says Tropical Storm Helene left behind 82,000 customers without power in southern West Virginia Friday with additional outages possible until the utility’s delivery system is stabilized.
Mon Power reported more than 10,000 customers without power in West Virginia’s northcentral and eastern counties.
⛈️ Hurricane Helene caused significant damage to our energy delivery system and distribution networks, causing 281,000 customers to lose power at the storm’s peak. Nearly 2,500 employees and contractors are dedicated to storm restoration work. See more: https://t.co/eUTCDC4x1m. pic.twitter.com/hwYoEIxkVd
— Appalachian Power (@AppalachianPowe) September 27, 2024
About 12 hours after making landfall in Florida as a category 4 hurricane, Helene moved into Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and Kentucky by midday Friday. The eastern edge of the tropical depression passed through the Mountain State producing strong wind gusts and heavy rain in the U.S. Route 52 corridor from Bluefield to Huntington.
The Mercer County Commission put the county under a state of emergency after the stormed downed trees and caused flooding in poor drainage areas. Appalachian Power said it had 24,000 customers in Mercer County without service at 7 p.m. Friday which represents 70% of all its customers in the county.
High outage numbers were also reported in Raleigh (8,700), Cabell (7,700) McDowell (5,000), Wayne (6,900), Wyoming (5,400) and Kanawha (3,300) counties.
Appalachian Power reports 273,000 customers without power in its entire delivery system covering parts of West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee.
“Nearly 2,500 workers are dedicated to the restoration work following the storm,” the company said Friday evening. “Outage numbers could increase over the weekend as saturated soils may cause trees to topple onto power line infrastructure.”
The company said restoration work is expected to go into Sunday, “with lesser impacted areas getting their power restored before then.”
Storm Damage as Helene impacts Williamson, West Virginia. Winds gusting 40+ mph took out a large tree, severed power lines and took a pole down blocking Mountain Heights Road.⛈️💨 @NWSCharlestonWV @nwsjacksonky @SpencerWeather #wvwx #Helene #stormdamage #wind pic.twitter.com/YdQoboOwea
— Wes Wilson (@WesWilson247) September 27, 2024
Clean-up underway
Clean-up had already started in places like Beckley and Bluefield by Friday evening. There were also a number of trees down in Huntington’s Ritter Park.
The strong winds of Helene got the best of things on Mountain Heights Road in Williamson where several large trees were blown over.
The Natural Resources Police reported the campground at Bluestone Lake in Summers County was closed Friday afternoon because of rising water. A boat ramp in the area was also closed. The lake was not accessible from Route 20 but still is from Surveyor’s Branch Road.
Gov. Jim Justice put 22 counties under a state of preparedness heading into the storm. He said during his media briefing Friday that the state was in place for the proper storm response.