2:25 p.m. update: There are about Appalachian Power 95,000 customers without power.
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Noon update: There are still 107,000 Appalachian Power customers without power in Virginia.
Appalachian Power says the outages peaked at 128,000 customers.
Click here for Appalachian Power's outage map.
The Central Virginia Cooperative has 200 outages remaining, scattered over nine substations.
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9:50 a.m. update: Power is slowly beginning to be restored to Appalachian Power customers. Within the hour, about 5,000 customers have received their power back. There are now 108,000 customers in the state without power. Click here for Appalachian Power's outage map.
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8:50 a.m. update: According to Appalachian Power's website, there are still 113,000 customers in Virginia without power.
More than 12,000 customers in Roanoke City and Roanoke County are without power.
In Wythe County and Montgomery County, more than 9,000 customers are in the dark. Pulaski County has 8,400 customers without power.
Click here for Appalachian Power's outage map.
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7:50 a.m. update: Appalachian Power's outages in Virginia are up to 113,000.
Spokesperson Todd Burns said crews should make significant progress as the day progresses.
There are roughly 9,000 customers without power in the counties of Montgomery and Pulaski.
There are a nearly 13,000 customers without power in Roanoke City and Roanoke County combined.
Click here for Appalachian Power's outage map.
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6:50 a.m. update: Appalachian Power's outages in Virginia are up to 109,000.
The most number of outages in our area are in Montgomery County (9,000), Pulaski County (8,500), Roanoke County (7,000), Smyth County (9,500), and Wythe County (8,900).
Click here for Appalachian Power's outage map.
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6:10 a.m. update: Appalachian Power spokesperson Todd Burns said crews will be able to make significant progress at daylight.
“As soon as we get a little bit of daylight today, we’ll be able to make some real progress,” Burns said.
Burns said this storm did far less damage than June's derecho storm.
“Fortunately this is not as large of an event as that was,” Burns said. “We didn’t really have any time to prepare for that.”
Burns said it's not exactly clear when power will be restored.
“There is just a tremendous amount of work to do. There are literally hundreds of places to go just in Roanoke to get power back on,” Burns said.
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4:50 a.m. update: There are still more 107,000 Appalachian Power customers without power.
The highest number of outages in the WDBJ7 viewing area is Montgomery County, where 9,000 customers are without power.
Click here for Appalachian Power's outage map.
Additionally, there are nearly 1,000 Central Virginia Electric Cooperative members without power.
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As of 10 p.m., there are 100,000 Appalachian Power customers in Virginia without power.
The New River Valley appears to be especially hard hit. There 8,600 customers in Montgomery County without power, and 8,300 in Pulaski County without power.
In Roanoke County, 7,000 customers are in the dark.
Click here for Appalachian Power's power outage map.
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As of 7:45 p.m., 82,000 Appalachian Power customers were without power in Virginia.
Appalachian Power says it expects the number of customers without power to increase as the storm moves through the area.
The utility says safety is its highest priority.
Crews are staged locally in Christiansburg, Glade Spring, Roanoke and Wytheville.
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8:20 p.m. update: The number of customers in Pulaski County have grown to 8,000.
There are about 4,000 customers without power in Roanoke City, and another 6,300 without power in Roanoke County.
Click here for Appalachian Power's power outage map.
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7:20 p.m. update: According to Appalachian Power, there are 72,600 customers without power in Virginia.
There are 7,400 customers without power in the Roanoke County; about 3,800 in Roanoke City.
Here are some other outage numbers, by county: Wythe County (7,600), Pulaski County (5,000), Montgomery County (4,900).
Appalachian Power says restoration times are not available yet.
The Roanoke Fire Department says it is responding to at least 10 calls for downed power lines.
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Appalachian Power spokesperson Todd Burns says since the bad weather has occurred toward the end of the night, it may be until Friday morning when some customers get their power back.
Burns says it's not safe for the linemen to work in the dark.
Burns said the outages have been rolling in as expected. They have 1,500 linemen in the area or arriving from out of state. There is another 1,600 APCO linemen available.
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6 p.m. update: There are 5,000 Appalachian Power customers without power in Smyth County, and nearly 4,000 without power in Roanoke County.
There are several reports of downed wires in the Roanoke/Salem area.
From the City of Roanoke:
“The City of Roanoke is experiencing a large number of wires down calls. Roanoke Fire-EMS is responding to these wires as quickly as we can but as you can imagine we are very busy. If you notice a power line that is down, please report it and we will get there as soon as possible. Right now we have 10 wires down calls pending in the E-911 Center. PLEASE do not approach the line or go near it because it could be a live wire posing an electrocution hazard. Roads are also becoming very treacherous, so if you don't have to be out tonight we recommend you stay home. Also, many people are seeing power outages in their neighborhoods. Remember: - Never run generators inside of your home. This is a carbon monoxide hazard. - Never leave space heaters/kerosene heaters unattended. Keep a 3 ft. perimeter from anything combustible. - Never use your stove to heat your home. - Use caution when using wood stoves/fire places. - Use flashlights instead of candles. - Check your smoke detectors.”
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Several thousand Appalachian Power customers are without power.
In Roanoke County alone as of 5:30 p.m., 2,400 people were without power. In Giles County, 2,100 people are without power. Also, Bland County has 3,000 without power.
Click here for Appalachian Power's power outage map.
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The snow could put people in the dark.
Appalachian Power says you should expect outages Thursday night through Friday.
APCO called in 1,500 extra line mechanics to help out.
Some came from as far away as Indiana.
They're stationing most of those crews in the Wytheville area.
But there will be APCO workers here in Roanoke for any outages.
A spokesperson says they're worried the rain earlier this week will cause a lot of problems.
“So with the ground as saturated as it is it's going to be hard for some of these trees to stay upright if they've got a bunch of snow on,” Appalachian Power spokesperson Todd Burns said.
Burns says they expect to start seeing outages at 6 p.m. Thursday night, and the numbers will go up overnight.
Because of that timing, APCO says it will be difficult to work in the dark.
So people need to be prepared in case there's no power when they go to bed.
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Appalachian Power is getting ready for Thursday's snow.
Spokesperson Todd Burns says extra crews will be working and they have brought in help from other states.
Most of the trucks and equipment will be stationed in the Wytheville area which is expected to see the most snow.
