Ice and wind knock out power to 1/3 of county

Freezing rain and icy conditions weighed heavily on

trees and power lines Saturday night through Sunday morning, December 16, leaving many county electric customers

waiting for a restoration of power.

Though warmer temperatures erased much of the area's ice, an influx of high winds Sunday afternoon brought more tree damage and further power outages.

As of Monday, December 17, officials with Allegheny Power said 3,800 Morgan County customers were still without electricity, even after crews had restored power to another 1,100 customers. Morgan County has a total of 10,350 Allegheny Power customers.

Crew comes from Georgia

According to Allan Staggers, spokesperson for the power company, a line crew from Georgia was on its way to

Morgan County on Monday to help get power online.

Staggers said the company estimated most local people would have their power back on by late Tuesday afternoon.

Pockets of outages were reported between Great Cacapon and Paw Paw, the New Hope area and big

portions of eastern Morgan County. Other sections of the county lost power for only brief periods before lights came back on.

Tips for outages

Staggers advised all customers to report their loss of power at 1-800-255-3443, even when an outage seemed to be widespread.

He advised homeowners experiencing longer outages

to leave a few lights on so

they know when power is restored, but to turn off circuit breakers to larger appliances like hot water heaters and furnaces.

Flipping those breakers

can help prevent an overload on circuits once power comes back on, Staggers said. He

also advised that customers avoid opening their refrigerators and freezers unnecessarily if they are facing a longer period without power.

Allegheny Power reported ice and wind damage across all of its service territory.