Storms Cause Additional Power Outages

{Charleston, West Virginia}...Appalachian Power spokesman Phil Moye says the company was on track with its hopes of having electricity restored to around 95 percent of its West Virginia customers by Sunday. Then a new line of thunderstorms hit the state, causing more than 20,000 additional power outages statewide. Around 2:00 P.M., outages in West Virginia numbered in the 41,000 range. By 6:00 P.M., as another line of thunderstorms crossed the state, an additional 20,000 West Virginia customers were out of power. Around 10,000 of the new outages were in the Kanawha Valley, and the other 10,000 were in the Huntington area. Moye says, around 8:00 P.M., 15,000 Kanawha County customers were without power. Sunday marked the third storm that caused a setback for Appalachian Power after a June 29th storm knocked out power to 330,000 West Virginians. A storm on July 1st caused an additional 30,000 customers to lose power. Another storm July 5th knocked out power to around 40,000 people in West Virginia.