Power outages reduced to 40,000Posted Feb11, 2008 at 05:56 PMAppalachian Power says some Roanoke-area customers could be without power until Friday, but the company reported that the number of outages continues to be reduced. Outages peaked at 10 p.m. Sunday with 80,000 Virginia households affected. As the sun set Monday, that had dropped to about 40,000. In a mid-day update Monday, the power company said, “Most customers should have power restored by late Thursday night, but some outages will likely extend into Friday.” Accompanying information indicated that the Roanoke area was the only one expected to have customers without power until Friday. An estimated 1,300 people were working on fixing power outages in the region, according to AEP. Crews have been brought in from utilities in other states to help, said spokesman Todd Burns. Traffic lights at several major intersections in Roanoke were out Monday and almost a third of the city’s residents were without power. Most of the city’s public buildings were open, although there was some minor wind damage, said Melinda Mayo, the city’s public information officer. A lack of electricity led the city’s parks and recreation department to close three of its facilities until power is restored: Addison Fitness Center, Mountain View Center and Mill Mountain Discovery Center. “We’ve done all we can do in terms of getting the stoplights working,” she said, and now are waiting for the power to come back on. She said garbage collection was conducted as usual Monday, but 15 alleys and a few streets could not be serviced due to downed trees and wires. Those who were missed were asked to leave their trash containers, recycling, and bulk and brush at the curb as solid-waste collection crews will recheck those streets Tuesday. Routes for the rest of the week will be collected on schedule, although Wednesday and Thursday routes include many alleys that are believed to be blocked, Mayo said. Roanoke County’s Kessler Mill Road complex – which includes the parks and recreation offices, the radio shop and the regional fire training center – also was without power Monday. Garbage collection continued as scheduled even though the general services offices, also located on Kessler Mill, were without power as well. The county’s administration center on Bernard Drive Southwest operated on reduced power. Some 9,000 county customers were without power as nightfall approached. In Vinton, most town offices were unaffected by the outage, but the Charles Hill Senior Center, the War Memorial and the Vinton Library were all closed because the power was out. Several streets were closed, said interim Town Manager Consuella Caudill, because of downed trees or power lines. At one time Sunday, “all of Craig County was without power,” said County Administrator Richard Flora. By midday Monday power had been restored to all but the most outlying areas, he said. The sparsely populated county is served by both Appalachian Power and the Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative. The co-op, which serves 6,600 customers, mostly in Craig, Botetourt and Alleghany counties, lost power to almost 5,000 of them at the storm’s peak, said operations manager Eddie Helems. Only 600 to 700 remained without power Monday afternoon, most in Alleghany County served by a substation whose supplier, Virginia Power, was still out. “They’re telling us that by 7 p.m. we expect to get them back on,” Helems said. In Salem, some residents were without power for a few hours before it was restored by the city’s electric department, said Electric Department Director A.K. Briele. Of the 12,500 customers served by the Salem Electric Department, only about three houses still were without power on Monday, Briele said. In those cases, power lines were severed by fallen trees or by the wind, he said. Appalachian Power’s outage website can be accessed here: http://appalachianpower.com/news/outages/ |
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