When will my power be restored? Crews in mountains, foothills continue to restore outages

By Serra Sowers

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    ALLEGHANY COUNTY, N.C. (WXII) — Ice storms from earlier this week have left parts of the foothills and mountains stuck without power. People in North Carolina and Virginia are feeling the impacts of half an inch of ice.

More than 5,ooo households in northern North Carolina, as of Thursday night, are still without power as Blue Ridge Energy said crews continue repairing lines around the clock. They said an estimated 800 areas on the grid are damaged by the ice accumulation.

“Ice is a complicated thing and it’s probably one of the worst things that can happen to the system, the electric grid overall,” said Jacob Puckett, digital communications manager for Blue Ridge Energy.

Crews and linemen from across Appalachia have been working since Wednesday to restore power to customers. Puckett told WXII they have more than 120 technicians repairing power lines across Wilkes, Alleghany, Watauga and Ashe counties. Linemen from other foothills counties, like Surry, Yadkin and Stokes, have been helping in their efforts as well.

Puckett said ice can be one of the most destructive elements on power lines.

“A number of things happen, trees get weighed down with ice, which causes them to snap, break, uproot,” he said. “You actually have stress on the poles and wires; as the wires sag under the weight of the ice, it causes outages. And then, we have what we consider a secondary wave as the ice melts, and the weight comes off the trees and the power lines. It can cause the power lines to do something we call slapping, where they hit each other and cause more outages.”

Helene affected much of the mountain community tree canopies, he said, making weaker trees more susceptible to falling now.

Fallen trees and power outages in Fancy Gap prevented one man from returning home. Ken McFarland sent photos and has been staying in a hotel in Mount Airy until the roads clear up.

To stay safe in winter power outages, crews said you should avoid down powerlines and going slow when passing trucks and crews.

Blue Ridge Energy said they expect impacted households to have power back on by Friday night.

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