More than 2,000 customers in the city of Lynchburg and Amherst, Bedford, Campbell and Nelson counties were without power Saturday as high winds caused tree damage in the Appalachian Power Company’s service area.
Storm damage has left more than 83,000 customers without power so far, according to an APCo press release at 6:30 p.m. More than 49,000 of these customers are in West Virginia, 31,400 in Virginia and 2,600 in Tennessee.
Outages began increasing Saturday afternoon and are likely to increase throughout the night until damaging winds subside, the APCo news release said. Wind gusts in excess of 30 miles per hour are creating unsafe conditions for aerial workers in buckets and slowing recovery efforts in many areas, the release said.
“Appalachian Power planned significant outages due to this storm and has more than 1,600 employees dedicated to restoring power,” APCo said in the release. “This includes more than 900 line workers, 120 damage assessors and 450 tree removal workers.”
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More than 100 additional call center agents are working to take customer calls about outages. Appalachian Power’s Storm Response Team assesses damage and makes repairs to major known outages where safe to do so. In advance of the storm, the company seized more than 200 line workers from outside the company’s service area who were traveling from other states to help.
APCo customers can receive specific information about the outages affecting their accounts via SMS and/or email by subscribing to Appalachian Power Outage Alerts. To register, visit www.appalachianpower.com/alerts.
A snapshot of current outages is always available at www.appalachianpower.com. Go to the Outages and Issues section of the home page and click View Outage Map.
The City of Lynchburg Public Works Department prepared to respond to the storm event with tree crews and other emergency services.
The city’s emergency response center is reminding residents to call 9-1-1 only in emergencies (fallen trees, fire, or other hazards). Non-emergencies can be reported by calling (434) 847-1602. To report power outages or broken power lines, please call Appalachian Power at (800) 956-4237 or visit https://www.appalachianpower.com/outages/report/.
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