Potomac Edison Company officials are still assessing the damage resulting from the December 1st snowstorm which veteran utilitymen have described as “the worst in memory.”
- W. Lancaster, Assistant Division Manager for PE in this area, said that nearly 11,000 customers were without electric service for varying periods during the storm emergency, which lasted from Sunday, December 1, through Sunday, December 8 when the last customers were restored to service. That figure is from a total of about 24,000 customers in the region.
Lancaster gave the following breakdown of customer outages:
Romney operating area-3,100 (this includes Romney, Burlington, Purgitsville, Augusta, Lost River Valley and the Fort Ashby areas).
Keyser operating area-4,300 (this includes the Keyser, Piedmont and Westernport areas).
Petersburg operating area-3,300 (this covers most of Hardy and Grant counties, including Moorefield and Petersburg).
Lancaster estimated that about one half of those customers had service restored within 48 hours. He conceded, however, that “much of what we attempted to do within the first 48 hours was quickly undone by the worsening weather conditions. In many cases, lines that were restored to service were knocked out again and we had to do it all over.”
The Sunday storm affected just about every part of PE’s four-state service area, Lancaster said, although the Valley area and the Allegany and Garrett Counties in Maryland experienced the most difficulties with snowfall measuring up to 40 inches and
more. Other PE areas were hit by an electrical storm and high winds, he said.
As soon as other areas were restored to service, line crews and other PE personnel were dispatched to the hardest hit sections to aid in the restoration effort, according to Lancaster.
“We had every available body working on storm problems at all of our locations here,” he stated. “On Monday we began receiving crews from other PE locations and, eventually, we had 42 linemen and 17 vehicles from Winchester, Charles Town, Berkeley Springs, Martinsburg and Frederick assisting us.’
While service has been restored to all customers, Lancaster said there is still a tremendous amount of storm damage to be repaired. Some temporary installations made during the storm restoration must be redone, he said.
PE officials reported that the most serious problem is the 500,000 volt line from Hatfield’s Ferry power station (near Masontown, Pa.), which passes through Mineral County, to Doubs sub- station, (near Frederick, Md.). Eleven steel towers on this line crumpled from the sheer weight of snow and ice which accumulated on the lines to a diameter of 19 inches in some areas. There is no immediate estimate as to when the line can be restored to service.
Lancaster reiterated his thanks to customers “for their patience and understanding during the emergency, and I would certainly take this opportunity to publicly express my appreciation to our employees for their remarkable performance under such adverse circumstances.”
