MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — FirstEnergy crews continue work to restore power to customers affected by severe weather this week.
On MetroNews “Talkline,” spokesman Will Boye said they have made progress, but some of the toughest work is ahead of them when floodwaters recede.
“Our crews have restored power to about 40 percent of the roughly 40,000 customers that were impacted by the severe weather yesterday,” Boye said. “We’re working to restore power as quickly and as safely as we can.”
The linemen are working as quickly as practical, and there are more in-house and contract workers on the way to the area. Most of the additional and contract workers are expected to arrive in the next 12 hours.
“We have about 700 line workers involved in the restoration effort currently, and we’ll be getting additional crews from FirstEnergy, utilities, and contract partners today to assist with that effort,” Boye said.
Crews are assessing and restoring power throughout the area in relatively favorable conditions. Those conditions will continue to improve with temperatures in the 70s and lower humidity values as we get later into the week.
“These are certainly very challenging conditions, but the good news is we have some good restoration weather for the rest of the week, so that’s positive,” Boye said.
The workers have flood waters and whatever storm debris that lurks below to deal with. In some areas crews have clearing and some work to make roads and access ways passable to make repairs.
“Access is very difficult as you know,” Boye said. “There’s been some flooding, and that slows us down in terms of access; it makes it hard for our crews to get out to the areas where we’re seeing damage, and it also makes it hard for our contractors to get into our service centers to help us.”
This storm was especially intense in the center portion of the state, but the National Weather Service has yet to confirm a tornado. Survey teams and weather spotters will likely make that determination in the next few days.
“According to our meteorologist, the storm produced wind gusts of 60 to 70 miles per hour in some areas and obviously caused significant tree and equipment damage along with broken poles.”