WIRTZ, Va. – A neighborhood in Wirtz is just one of many in our corner of the Commonwealth that lost power due to Monday morning’s snowstorm.
”It was chilly. We have a wood stove so we tried to keep it going during the night. So it wasn’t too bad. Lot of inconvenience, the well is out so you don’t have water, stuff like that,” said John Mullinax, one of the Wirtz residents who lost power.
Appalachian Power has crews working to restore service and brought in extra help from other states including Ohio and West Virginia.
“They called in a lot of company personnel and a lot of the contractors working in other areas for the company. I think I saw 500+ down here for the recovery,” said Appalachian Power employee Neil McMillion.
In Wirtz, 75 customers lost power when a tree fell and damaged power lines and broke at least one pole. For this particular restoration, crews are using a track digger. Crews use it when the terrain is too rough or the location is too remote for their trucks to get to.
“It’s basically a line truck mounted on a rubber track chassis. It’s got a wrench on the front, tracks on it. It’s got cleats that bolt to it if it gets icy,” McMillion explained.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than half of AEP’s customers who lost service because of the storm had their power restored. For the others impacted, crews continue their efforts to get the lights back on.