Power outages leave thousands without heat in Montgomery County

BLACKSBURG (WSLS 10) - A bad breaker and a faulty underground cable are to blame for outages that at their peak Thursday night and Friday morning, had more than 3,300 people without electricity in Montgomery County.

Many of those people live outside of Blacksburg town limits and are on well water. That means they lost running water too.

The Blacksburg community and aquatic centers opened as shelters with hot showers for people still without electricity Friday. Blacksburg High School also offered hot showers and breakfast to students.

"We don't have city water, so when the power goes out, we lose our water," said Montgomery County resident Ray Robertson. "That becomes an issue, at least short term, unless you have a backup generator. I did hear generators running in the neighborhood, but we don't have one."

Appalachian Power said the cold temperatures made the repair process slow and difficult.