Oak Hill, WV (WOAY) – A round of strong storms is moving through West Virginia with the potential for damaging winds and power outages, and Appalachian Power says it is watching the system closely.
AEP Spokesperson Ashley Workman says the storms could bring winds strong enough to threaten the grid.
“Our meteorology team is predicting that we could see some scattered wind gusts of around 60 to 70 miles per hour. So that is significant,” Workman said. “And with that, it brings potential to down equipment, including lines, power poles, and on top of that, tree branches.”
That risk is why the company says its response begins ahead of the weather. Workman said the meteorology and storm response teams track a system from the outset so crews can move quickly once damage starts.
Appalachian Power says it has crews staged and ready to respond to whatever the storms bring. Its main request of customers is to stay away from any downed power lines and be patient as crews work to reach them.
“If you see a downed wire or a downed line in the road, always assume no matter what that it is live and it can hurt you,” Workman said. “So stay as far away as possible from it, as well as anything it might be touching. You know, keep your kids away, keep your pets away, and just keep yourself safe.”
When outages begin stacking up, Workman said crews follow a set order of priorities. Critical services such as hospitals come first, followed by the outages affecting the largest number of customers, and then smaller, localized repairs.
The company asks customers to report any outages online at AppalachianPower.com/outages.
