Appalachian Power Storm Response Update #11
Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024 – 1 p.m.
Situation
As Appalachian Power completes service restoration in West Virginia, workers are moving to join those already working in Southern Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. Thousands of line and tree personnel continue to assess damage and restore power to Appalachian Power customers who lost electric service following Hurricane Helene's landfall on Friday. As of 1 p.m. Sunday, approximately 159,000 of the impacted customers remain without power.
Outages & Damages
- Crews continue assessment today while navigating downed trees and flooded areas. Assessing damage following a storm is critical to prioritizing the public's safety by first identifying hazards, including downed trees, destructed electrical equipment and fallen wire.
- With nearly 40% of the completed assessment, crews have found over 1,600 spans of fallen wire and damaged equipment, including 350 poles, 230 crossarms and 90 transformers.
- Workers have restored power to 43%, or 123,000, of customers since the peak of 282,000 on Friday.
- About 113,600 of the remaining affected customers are in Virginia. More than 40,800 customers are without service in West Virginia, and about 4,600 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 3,500 employees and contractors remain dedicated to storm restoration work, including mutual assistance crews from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma and Texas.
- 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, 4 p.m. for the Roanoke, Va., area.
- Tuesday, Oct. 1, 11 p.m. for Kingsport, Tenn., and the areas of Bluefield, Glade Spring, Glen Lyn, Grundy, Floyd, Lebanon, 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 on Sunday is favorable for restoring electric service, although downed trees and flooded areas 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.
- Appalachian Power is warning all boaters to stay clear of Niagara Dam on the Roanoke River in Vinton. Debris brought on by the current heavy rains broke the floating boat barrier that keeps boaters away from the dam.
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: Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, 5 p.m.