WEST VIRGINIA, KENTUCKY (WCHS) — UPDATED – 8 p.m., 1/6/24
American Electric Power crews continue efforts to restore service for tens of thousands of customers in West Virginia and Kentucky that were left in the dark after heavy snowfall, sleet and freezing rain moved through the region.
Appalachian Power noted West Virginia saw more than 35,000 outages with portions of the Eyewitness News viewing area – Clay, Lincoln and Wayne counties – hit hard by severe weather.
The power company expects to have service restored Monday evening for Wayne customers and Tuesday evening for affected areas of Cabell and Lincoln counties. Other areas – including portions of Boone, Kanawha, Fayette, Logan and Wood counties – have restoration estimates set for Wednesday evening.
Numbers from Appalachian Power posted Monday evening showed 9,339 customers without service in Kanawha County, 2,825 in Lincoln, 2,043 in Raleigh, 1,731 in Wayne, 747 in Putnam, 683 in Clay, 544 in Cabell, 357 in Logan, 325 in Roane, 183 in Boone and 117 in Fayette County.
To check on outages in West Virginia, click here.
Kentucky Power noted outage across its service area, including more than 1,600 customers in Johnson County along with hundreds more in Morgan (699), Martin (967), Floyd (577) and Pike counties (741).
The company expects 95% of outages in the Bluegrass State to be restored by Tuesday night.
To track power outages in Kentucky, click here.
Thousands of personnel from multiple states have been faced with hazardous weather and road conditions, impacting the workload.
UPDATED – 2:55 p.m., 1/6/25
Power outages in West Virginia and Kentucky are beginning to slowly decline Monday afternoon.
More than 39,000 Appalachian Power customers, however, were still without service as of 2:45 p.m. Monday.
Locally, Kanawha County had the most customers without power at about 8,500, followed by Lincoln (4,600), Raleigh (4,100), Wayne (3,200) and Summers (1,000).
Mercer County leads the state in southern West Virginia with more than 12,000 customers without service.
Outage totals have also declined in eastern Kentucky to about 7,900.
Johnson County still leads the way with more than 1,800 customer outages, followed by Floyd, Martin, Lawrence and Pike counties each with nearly 1,000.
UPDATED – 10:55 a.m., 1/6/25
The number of Appalachian Power customers experiencing outages in West Virginia has climbed to more than 46,000 Monday morning.
More than 11,100 Kanawha County customers are now without service – the most among counties served by AEP in West Virginia as of 10:45 a.m.
Nearly 7,000 customers in Lincoln County are also without service, followed by 5,300 in Raleigh, 3,200 in Wayne, nearly 2,000 in Putnam, 1,200 in Logan and about 1,000 each in Roane and Summers counties.
In southern West Virginia, nearly 11,000 AEP customers are without power in Mercer County.
Crews from seven states have joined nearly 5,000 AEP workers to help restore power, according to a news release from the company.
The utility said crews are working to restore large outages in small groups so as to not overload lines. Priority is given to essential public safety facilities like hospitals, 911 call centers, water treatment plants and first responder facilities, the news release said.
More than 10,000 Kentucky Power customers in eastern Kentucky remain without service. Floyd, Johnson, Lawrence, Martin and Pike counties all have between 1,000 and 2,000 customer outages.
ORIGINAL STORY
Thousands are without power in West Virginia and Kentucky as temperatures plummet Monday amid a winter storm.
More than 36,000 Appalachian Power customers in West Virginia were reporting outages as of 6:45 a.m. Monday.
More than 7,000 customers in Raleigh County were without power Monday morning, followed by Kanawha (more than 5,700), Lincoln (3,300), Wayne (2,900) Putnam (1,700), Logan (1,200) and Roane (1,000) as of 6:45 a.m.
Mercer County had the most customer outages at the time with more than 8,700.
In eastern Kentucky, more than 10,000 AEP customers did not have service. About 2,000 customers in Johnson County were without power – the most in that region. Pike County follows with about 1,500 outages, followed by Martin County (1,300), Floyd (1,100) and Lawrence (more than 800).
The outages come as the region was blanketed with several inches of snow Sunday night. State of emergencies have been issued in West Virginia and Kentucky, and officials have asked residents to stay off the roads if possible.
Follow the latest weather updates from our storm team by clicking here.
