UPDATE 7:30 p.m. Friday — According to outage maps, around 19,000 Mon Power customers and 11,000 Appalachian Power customers remain without power.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It appears it’s going to be Saturday night before most customers of Appalachian Power and Mon Power impacted by Friday’s power outage will have service restored.
It’s the ongoing breezy conditions that will slow the restoration through the day Friday.
“It’s not safe for us to put a bucket (truck) up in the air when the wind speeds exceed 30 miles-per-hour,” Appalachian Power spokesperson Ashley Workman said. “That’s something that we’re going to keep a very close eye on but when that does happen we’re going to prioritize assessment work and things that can get done on the ground so we can get power restored as quickly as we can.”
👷♂️ Our crews are assessing the damage and working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to customers impacted by Thursday’s high winds. As of 10:00 a.m. about 43,000 customers are without power.
↪️ Get storm & real-time outage updates here: https://t.co/IqJMI2vYhh pic.twitter.com/N4yj6ZwAbb
— Appalachian Power (@AppalachianPowe) December 19, 2025
Appalachian Power reported approximately 32,000 customers remaining without service at 11 a.m. Friday. The company said it hopes to have 95 percent of its customers restored by 11 p.m. Saturday.
Workman said damage assessments were underway Friday morning.
Crews from outside the state have been contacted, Workman said.
“We have some early commitments,” she said.
Mon Power reported 30,561 customers without service as of 11 a.m. Friday. The hard hit areas include Marion, Harrison, Taylor, Braxton, Calhoun, Gilmer and Ritchie counties.
“Those winds really whipped through last night causing a lot of trees to come down,” Mon Power spokesperson Hannah Catlett said.
Assessment crews were getting a better idea of the damage Friday morning.
Mon Power is also bringing in contractors.
“The damage is pretty widespread across the state,” Catlett said.
Crews are actively working to restore power to customers who lost service overnight due to high winds. We expect to share estimated restoration times later tonight. If you experience an outage as the gusty winds continue today, please be sure to report it. pic.twitter.com/iX37ZQc7Fa
— Mon Power (@MonPowerWV) December 19, 2025
There’s also the concern about the windy conditions continuing through the day Friday.
“It does impact the timing of doing the restoration,” Catlett said.
Wind gusts were in the 60 and 70 mph range when the storm hit early Friday morning.
“It was a basically a squall line in front of a cold front,” National Weather Service Meteorologist James Zvolensky told MetroNews early Friday morning. “It was a sharp cold front so the squall line was a little intense.”
There was no school Friday in Calhoun, Gilmer and Ritchie counties. Several other school districts closed individual schools due to power outages.