Appalachian Power Storm Response Update #20
Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024 – 6 p.m.
Situation
After the widespread winds howled, rain poured and trees fell late last week, Hurricane Helene's remnants left 282,000 Appalachian Power customers without electric service. A workforce of 5,000 and counting is working tirelessly around the clock to restore power while navigating debris, flooded areas and road closures. As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, 62,900 customers remained without power.
Outages & Damages
- Destructive winds and downed trees wreaked havoc across Appalachian Power's territory. Assessment teams continue to work ahead of lineworkers and forestry personnel. 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.
- With 75% of the assessment completed, crews have found 2,330 spans of fallen wire and damaged equipment, including 550 poles, 310 crossarms and 135 transformers.
- More than 2,400 unique locations across Southern Virginia, Southern West Virginia and Northeast Tennessee need repairs.
- Workers continue to make significant restoration progress in areas without challenging access and flooding.
- Crews have restored power to nearly 80%, or 219,100, of customers since the peak of 282,000 on Friday.
- About 49,650 of the remaining affected customers are in Virginia. Over 12,200 customers are without service in West Virginia, and about 1,050 are in Tennessee.
Storm Response Efforts
- Appalachian Power planned for outages from this storm by having all employees and business partners on alert and prepared to work.
- Appalachian Power crews began restoring power to several critical customers in its service territory as soon as it was safe.
- A workforce of 5,000 employees and contractors remain dedicated to storm restoration work, including mutual assistance crews from 21 states as far as Wisconsin.
- Several hundred additional field personnel arrived today, with more arriving Wednesday, to aid in restoration.
- Hundreds of line and forestry crews continue to work in the hardest-hit areas of Bluefield; Damascus; Grundy; Fries; Independence; Lebanon; Sugar Grove; Tazewell and Whitetop, Va.
- As work finishes in one area, crews are shifted to other areas to join those already deployed there.
Restoration Estimates
Due to extensive damage in some areas, Appalachian Power will update estimated restoration times (ETRs) extending past tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 11 p.m.
- Tuesday, Oct. 1, 8 p.m. for Beckley, Hico, Pineville and Welch, W.Va.
- 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.
- 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. Downed trees and flooded areas may impact restoration efforts. Crews will continue to work as safely and quickly as possible.
Hydro: Byllesby/Buck
- Appalachian Power proactively initiated the Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for the Byllesby/Buck Hydro Electric Facility on Friday, Sept. 27. The plan was activated for a Potential Failure due to lack of visibility of our facility as water flows on the New River continued to rise.
- The Potential Failure at Byllesby/Buck was lifted on Saturday, Sept. 28. The Non-Failure Emergency was lifted Sept. 30.
- River conditions have started to return to normal, and an inspection of our Byllesby/Buck Hydro facility has shown no issues. We will work to coordinate further inspections of the facilities in the coming weeks. Both Buck and Byllesby Powerhouses are down and inoperable now due to maintenance stemming from the high waters brought on by Hurricane Helene. We will provide more information as it becomes available.
Hydro: Niagara
Appalachian Power warns all boaters to stay clear of Niagara Dam on the Roanoke River in Vinton. Debris brought on by the heavy rains broke the floating boat barrier that keeps boaters away from the dam.
Hydro: Claytor
We are aware of the large amounts of debris at our Claytor Hydro facility and are coordinating clean-up activities with the Friends of Claytor Lake.
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.
- Be aware of scammers and remember that Appalachian Power will never request upfront payment or a reconnection fee in return for restoring your service.
- Follow all recommended precautions if using a personal generator. Never use a generator inside your home, garage, crawl space, other enclosed areas or anywhere exhaust fumes can enter enclosed spaces. Never connect a generator to your home's circuits. Plug appliances directly into the 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: Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, 9 p.m.