Power Outages Hit 5,000 After Windstorm

More than 5,000 Appalachian Power Co. customers in West Virginia temporarily lost their electricity service on Wednesday due to damage from high winds the night before, the company said.

About 3,000 customers in Flatwoods and Elkview had their service cut off about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday when the winds knocked down a tree outside Appalachian’s right of way that fell onto a power line, said company spokeswoman Jeri Matheny.

Power was restored to all but about 500 of those customers by 6:45 a.m., and the remaining customers had service by about 11 a.m. Matheny said.

About that same time, about 1,800 Appalachian customers in Sissonville lost power, also the result of a tree’s falling on a power line, Matheny said. They were back on line at 3:15 p.m., she said.

Another 600 Appalachian customers in Cabell and Wayne counties lost power early Wednesday morning, too, due to wind damage, Matheny said. Their service was restored piecemeal throughout the afternoon, and all were back to normal by 5 p.m., she said.

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