Situation
More than 2,500 Appalachian Power crews, contractors and mutual aid partners made tremendous progress Saturday assessing damage and restoring power following Hurricane Helene's landfall. Friday's storms devastated the electric grid with heavy rain and winds upward of 65 mph. As of 5 p.m. Saturday, approximately 197,500 customers remain without power.
Outages & Damages
- More than 25% of Appalachian Power's service area has been assessed on foot, by drone and via helicopter, with crews finding 1,100 spans of downed wire and broken equipment, including 215 poles, 190 cross arms and 60 transformers.
- The extensive damage means difficult assessment as workers navigate flooded areas and fallen trees.
- Workers have restored power to 80,000 customers since the peak of 282,000 on Friday.
- About 136,000 of the remaining affected customers are in Virginia. More than 53,300 customers are without service in West Virginia, and about 8,200 are in Tennessee.
- Damage was widespread, with more than 2,200 unique outage cases reported between all three states.
Storm Response Efforts
- Appalachian Power planned for outages from this storm by having all employees and business partners on alert and prepared to work.
- As soon as it was safe, Appalachian Power crews began restoring power to several critical customers in its service territory.
- Over 2,500 employees and contractors are dedicated to storm restoration work, with 1,000 additional personnel joining Sunday morning.
- Mutual assistance crews from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma and Texas are working alongside Appalachian Power's company crews and contractors.
- As power is restored in Southern West Virginia, workers are moving to join those already working in Southern Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
Restoration Estimates
- Sunday, Sept. 29, 11 p.m. for most customers in West Virginia.
- Monday, Sept. 30, 11 p.m. for the areas of Christiansburg, Fieldale, Stuart, Pulaski, and Rocky Mount, Va.
- Tuesday, Oct. 1, 11 p.m. for Kingsport, Tenn., and the areas of Bluefield, Glade Spring, Glen Lyn, Grundy, Floyd, Lebanon, Roanoke, Tazewell, Woodlawn and Wytheville, Va.
- Most customers without service will have power restored before the above estimates. Customers are encouraged to view the company's outage map or sign up for outage alerts for information on their specific outage.
- Restoration may extend further in isolated instances where extensive repairs are needed.
Weather
Weather remains favorable for restoring electric service, although flooded areas and downed trees may impact restoration efforts. Crews will continue to work as safely and quickly as possible.
Hydro Facilities
Appalachian Power has lifted the Potential Failure for the Byllesby/Buck Hydro Electric Facility. This information is being shared with local emergency agencies and personnel.
AEP continues monitoring the hydro facilities and the rivers as they begin trending down, but it will take several days before they return to normal levels. Currently, we are at normal operating levels at our Claytor and Smith Mountain Hydro Electric facilities and will continue to operate as such. For updated information on the levels at our hydro facilities, visit our hydro flow website.
Safety Message
- High winds bring down power lines. Customers should treat all downed lines as live power lines and stay away from them. Never touch downed power lines or sparking equipment. Keep children and pets away from fallen wires and anything the lines may touch and immediately call 911 and Appalachian Power at 1-800-956-4237.
- Customers without power who are on life support systems or need uninterrupted electric service for health reasons should make alternate arrangements.
- Do not plug a generator into your circuit box using a portable or RV generator.
- Flooding occurred in many areas throughout our service territory. Be cautious, and remember to turn around; don't drown.
- Find additional safety tips at AppalachianPower.com/Safety.
When to Call an Electrician
- Appalachian Power cannot connect power to a home or business if there is damage to the service entrance, which the customer owns.
- Customers need a qualified electrician to repair this damage before power can be restored. The service entrance includes the metal box housing Appalachian Power's meter, the "weatherhead" pipe on top of the meter box, the service entrance cables running from the weatherhead through the meter box to the inside panel box, and other related facilities. Similar responsibilities apply to "underground" service.
- After repairs are made, contact Appalachian Power to have power restored.
For More Information
Customers can subscribe to Appalachian Power outage alerts to receive specific information about outages affecting their accounts via text message and/or email. To sign up, please visit Appalachian Power alerts.
A snapshot of current outages is available anytime by visiting Appalachian Power's Outage Map.
Next Update: Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, 9 p.m.