Weekend wind storms caused downed trees and power poles throughout the area, leaving thousands without power.
AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines said wind gusts of 40–50 mph that came on either side of a strong cold front were pretty common across the area on Saturday.
The Monongalia County Emergency Management Agency (MECCA) received 48 wind- or weather-related calls throughout Saturday and Sunday, Assistant Director Brad Wilson reported Monday.
Of those calls, 33 were for downed trees, eight for wires down and one for an arcing wire. Wilson said five brush fires were also reported as well as a structure collapse due to a roof being blown off a mobile home.
According to Mon Power Spokesperson Hannah Catlett, crews have safely restored power to nearly 40,000 of the more than 45,000 customers impacted by this weekend’s storm.
“Often times, Mon Power is able to move resources to assist the hardest hit areas immediately after a storm,” Catlett said. “However, this weekend all regions of Mon Power were impacted and most crews needed to serve in their own assigned areas. Therefore, Mon Power sought support from its sister companies and contractors.”
As of noon Monday, Catlett said more than 250 line workers were engaged in restoration efforts, including 30 linemen from sister companies and about 60 from contractors.
Crews will continue working 24/7 to restore service to about 5,100 customers who remain without power, she said.
“We expect to restore service to many remaining customers throughout the day [Monday] with some isolated outages likely extending into Tuesday,” Catlett said.
“We can’t thank you enough for your patience and understanding and for supporting our crews as they work around-the-clock to get everyone back up and running.”
Mon Power will continue to update restoration times on its online outages map — at firstenergycorp.com — as that information becomes available. You can also text STAT to 544487 for an update for your residence.
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