Situation
Appalachian Power Company (APCo) crews continue working in areas requiring extensive repairs following severe storms on Sunday and Monday. In addition to ground restoration efforts, APCo is deploying drones and helicopters to support restoration in the hardest-hit areas, including Cameron, Campbells Creek, East Lynn, the Eastern Kanawha Valley and Wayne areas in West Virginia, and the Saltville area in Virginia.
Since restoration efforts began, crews have restored power to more than 90% of impacted customers despite challenging conditions that include flooding, saturated ground, debris-covered roads and continued tree-related outages. Approximately 2,000 APCo employees and contractors remain engaged in restoration efforts across the service territory.
As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, approximately 2,6005 customers remain without service, and 76 locations need repairs.
Weather Conditions
Weather remains favorable for restoration tonight, although heavily saturated soil is causing trees to topple, leading to downed lines and additional outages.
Outages
As of about 7 p.m. Tuesday, 2,600 customers are without power following the storms, with about 2,100 of those outages in APCo's West Virginia territory and approximately 500 in Virginia.
Storm Response Efforts
Crews are focused on rebuilding damaged sections of the distribution system, replacing broken poles and equipment, clearing vegetation and restoring power to remaining customers as safely and quickly as possible. Mutual assistance personnel from neighboring utilities across multiple states continue supporting restoration efforts.
Ongoing flooding and unstable ground conditions continue to complicate restoration work in some areas and have contributed to additional outages as trees continue to fall onto power lines.
Restoration work remains active around the clock, and many customers will see service restored before the estimated restoration time. However, some customers in the most heavily damaged or difficult-to-access locations may experience longer restoration times as repairs are completed.
Restoration Estimates
The estimated restoration time for most customers who remain without power is Tuesday, Aug. 18, at 11 p.m.
As outages are assessed, customers can refer to AppalachianPower.com/OutageMap to view real-time outage updates and estimated times of restoration.
Safety
Customers should continue to stay away from downed power lines and anything those lines may contact, including fences, trees and standing water. Always assume downed lines are energized and dangerous.
Report hazardous situations by calling 911 and then APCo at 1-800-956-4237.
Additional safety tips are available at AppalachianPower.com/Safety.
For More Information
If a customer experiences a power outage, APCo’s Storm Response Team encourages them to report it at AppalachianPower.com/Outages.
APCo will notify customers with information about the outages affecting their account(s) via text message and/or email with Outage Alerts. Customers can verify their enrollment and contact information at AppalachianPower.com/Alerts.
Next Update: This is the final update for this storm.