Storm and Outage Details

Appalachian Power Storm Response Update #34

Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 – 5 p.m.

Situation

In just over a week, Appalachian Power completed restoration for all 282,000 customers who lost power due to Hurricane Helene. The task was daunting, but with the undying support of all its community partners, a workforce of 7,360 conquered challenging terrain and unspeakable devastation to keep the company's promise of restoring power to all affected customers.

Below is a recap of one of the most destructive storms ever hitting Appalachian Power territory.

Hurricane Helene's Impact

• Shortly after reaching Category 4 intensity on Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene landed in Florida. As Helene moved inland, the hurricane weakened into a widespread, catastrophic storm system. It was the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland US since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
• Hurricane Helene caused disastrous damage, and nearly 6 million customers in 10 states were left without power.
• When the storm's 800-mile-wide winds upward of 65 hit Appalachian Power's territory on Sept. 27, 282,000 customers lost electric service, including 175,820 in Virginia, 84,920 in West Virginia and 21,260 in Tennessee.

Appalachian Power's Storm Response

• Appalachian Power planned for outages from this storm by having all employees and business partners on alert and prepared to work.
• More than 7,360 personnel worked to rebuild the energy grid and restore power to customers.
• Workers from 27 states helped Appalachian Power's crews and contractors restore electric service. Mutual assistance crews traveled from Alabama; Arkansas; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Missouri; Nebraska; New Hampshire; New York; Ohio; Oklahoma; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; Texas; Vermont and Wisconsin.
• Assessing damage following a storm is critical to prioritizing the public's and employees' safety by first identifying hazards, including downed trees, broken electrical equipment and fallen wire. Over 320 assessors worked on foot, by drone and by helicopter to assess the damage. Workers faced historic flooding, fallen trees and debris, and road and bridge closures.
• More than 1,400 forestry personnel worked to remove trees, limbs and debris hazards from each of the 3,100 unique locations across Northeast Tennessee, Southern Virginia and Southern West Virginia needing repairs following the storm.

Restoration Efforts

• Workers rebuilt the energy grid and restored power using special equipment for hard-to-access areas, including helicopters, digger derricks and track machines.
• In some of the hardest hit areas of Glade Spring, Lebanon, Tazewell, Va., and Bluefield, W.Va., crews coordinated with county officials to build roads in order to reach job sites.
• Some areas required 2-person crews to hand-dig 8-foot-deep holes to place new poles, which, depending on the location, could take between 2-4 hours to complete.
• In total, crews replaced 1,455 poles, 214 miles of wire and 438 transformers, among hundreds of other critical pieces of electrical infrastructure.

Next Update: This is the final update for this storm