Crews work to restore service after powerful storms across West Virginia – WV MetroNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Powerful thunderstorms caused widespread damage and power outages across central and southern West Virginia Friday.

“We took quite a hit,” said Karen Wissing, spokesperson for Appalachian Power, during an update of the storm recovery Saturday morning.

According to Wissing at the peak there were more than 52,000 customers without power in their West Virginia service territory. By Saturday afternoon that had been whittled down to about 25,000, but power company officials were concerned the forecast for Saturday afternoon and evening included more storms with the possibility of high winds. Although officials hoped to have full restoration by 11 p.m. Sunday, the weather could set back those efforts.

“We had a lot of trees down due to the high winds which brought down lines and a lot of equipment. We’re having to put up new poles where needed and replace infrastructure where needed,” Wissing said.

More than 800 line workers and appraisers from six states are in West Virginia helping with the restoration effort.  Another 700 tree clearing crews are working alongside those linemen to clear storm damage out of the way.

“We have the crews coming in from Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Ohio to help us restore power as quickly as possible,” she said.

There was significant damage to structures as well. The powerful winds tore up the roof on Logan Elementary School and twisted off part of the sign atop the Logan Regional Medical Center.

Nicholas County took a hard hit as well. At one point more than half the people in the county were without electricity. A pontoon boat on Summersville Lake was flipped by the high winds Friday evening at the height o the storm. Nobody was hurt.