Wednesday, April 18, 2007
The wind may have died down, but it left massive power failures in its wake on Tuesday.
The wind storm that started Sunday night left about 11,000 local Appalachian Power customers without power by Tuesday afternoon in Henry and Patrick counties and Martinsville, according to Todd Burns, company spokesman. In Virginia, nearly 50,000 Appalachian Power customers were in the dark.
“There was almost a doubling in the outages just today from this morning,� he said Tuesday. “We’re 50 hours into this and the wind is still blowing and causing outages.�
The majority of the power failures were caused when the winds blew trees, tree limbs and/or power lines down.
In the Fieldale area, which Burns said includes Martinsville, west Bassett and Collinsville, 5,379 customers were without power.
In the Stuart area, which includes most of Patrick County, about 5,600 customers were without power.
The Fieldale and Stuart areas are part of AEP’s Roanoke district. In the entire district, about 20,000 customers were without power Tuesday afternoon, Burns said.
Burns said the power failures are spread out over the district because this storm “was not a focused storm like a hurricane or tornado,� but instead wind blew everywhere in the area.
“We hope to have everyone back by Thursday,� he said.
Almost 1,000 employees, including some from outside Virginia, and tree-trimming personnel are fixing the lines that affect most customers first, said Burns.
Additional line crews from West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky are either in the area or on the way, the Web site states.
In Martinsville, the situation was improving. A release from city Director of Communications Matt Hankins states that fewer than five Martinsville electric customers were without power late Tuesday afternoon.
East Church Street, which had been closed because trees had damaged utility lines and poles was expected to reopen Tuesday afternoon, the release added.
However, customers in the 100 block of Mulberry Road, Lanier Road and Knollwood Place will lose power for about four hours today or Thursday so that AEP can finish repairs there.
Source: Martinsville Bulletin, April 18, 2007