Power outages plague area as high wind impacts region

Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.
·2 min read

Jan. 26—BLUEFIELD — Power outages impacting thousands of customers were reported Wednesday across parts of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia as high winds tore through the region.

Electricity was first lost around 10:30 a.m. when service went out along Bluefield Avenue, putting the Bluefield Daily Telegraph in the dark along with other area businesses and residents. Service returned momentarily around 12:30 p.m., and flickered on and off before going off completely. Service was restored around 2:30 p.m.

According to the company's online outage map, an area in the City of Bluefield extending from Bluefield Avenue to the Bluefield State University campus and down to Sacred Heart Catholic Church was impacted. The Bluefield Municipal Building still had electricity, but much of the downtown including the Craft Memorial Library, the Bluefield Arts Center and the Mercer County Convention & Visitors Bureau did not have power, according to City Ambassador Marie Blackwell.

Phil Moye, a representative of Appalachian Power, said the outages in Bluefield had two sources.

"Wind had slapped wires together and there was another one where we had a problem with switches at our substation," Moye said later. "They had to repair and replace some equipment at a substation."

Moye said the company was not sure that Wednesday's winds were responsible for the switches breaking down, but with the high winds coming through the same time the substation had problems, it was a possibility. Trees and branches touching lines in other areas caused some smaller outages.

About 1,343 customers in the Bluefield area lost power, according to the Appalachian Power Company's outage map. Equipment issues were cited as the problem. Another 725 customers were without power in the Springville, Va. area along with 351 customers in Claypool Hill, Va.

Power outages were also reported in Beckley and in areas including Grundy, Va. and Abingdon, Va., according to the Appalachian Power outage map. Outages were reported as far away as Charleston and Huntington.

The National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va. forecasted wind gusts as high as 23 mph Wednesday afternoon. Winds up to 18 mph with gusts as high as 29 mph have been forecasted for today.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com