Strong winds mean many people in our hometowns are without power

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) – Thursday’s strong winds left many in our hometowns without power while temperatures fell below freezing.

There was no shortage of downed trees and downed power lines Thursday as winds ripped through Southwest Virginia.

According to AEP, nearly 9,000 people were without power at the height of the outages, but there were still 2,700 people without power as of Thursday evening.

Even some gas stations remained dark, leaving Montgomery County residents like Aaron Boyd driving around looking for gas to fill his backup generator.

“It’s just painful when it’s off while it’s off because you have to worry about your food and running the generator and making sure it’s filled with gas,” Boyd said.

Areas like Christiansburg, Woodlawn, Roanoke and Lynchburg experienced the most outages.

AEP’s George Porter says restoring power may take longer during high winds because it can be dangerous for grid operators.

“As I said, you know, in some areas it’s 50 mph gusts, in others it’s only 5 to 10 mph. “We allow them to take a look at their weather, assess their own territory and see if it’s safe to get up,” Porter said.

He also says now is the time of year to prepare for outages.

If you know severe weather is coming, make sure you have gas for the backup generator, enough batteries for lighting, charged phones, and other devices to stay warm in case the power goes out.

AEP hopes to have power restored to everyone by 11 p.m. Thursday.

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