ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR)—Virginians can still feel the aftermath of the winter storm, as outages doubled from around 50,000 homes on Wednesday to more than 100,000 homes on Thursday. Despite restoring power to almost 80,000 customers already, restoration efforts from Appalachian Power remain far from over.
The heavy ice and snow began to melt on the warmer, sunnier days following the storm, but new challenges present themselves in the form of flooding and high winds.
“Crews are facing wind gusts that are above 30 miles per hour in some areas,” Ashley Workman, an Appalachian Power communications representative, said. “We have to be really mindful of that because when those wind gusts do exceed 30 miles per hour, it’s not safe for line workers to be up in buckets.”
Places like Montgomery County had more than 20,000 homes without power as of Thursday morning, and some might not get it restored until Sunday.
For people like Judy Bower, one of the thousands of Appalachian Power customers without power in Montgomery County, that presents a real challenge for providing meals for her family over that time.
“We get paid once a month, and I bought groceries, but it said you have to cook the groceries at home,” Bower said. “I don’t buy ready-made (groceries).”
Despite the challenge, she said she’s confident her family will find a way through.
“We’ll figure something out,” Bower said. “We always do.”
For anyone else experiencing an extended outage, Appalachian Power encourages them to find a way to charge electronics if possible, and to prepare those emergency kits with non-perishable food, water, blankets and batteries.
Workman said Appalachian Power has increased the number of people dedicated to storm repairs to 7,000 people.