CHARLESTON, W.Va., March 7, 2015 – The heavy, wet snow that fell across West Virginia earlier this week continues to affect thousands of Appalachian Power customers. Wednesday night and into Thursday up to a foot of heavy, wet snow fell in areas of western West Virginia along the Ohio River and between Huntington and Charleston, weighing down trees and causing outages to a peak of more than 43,000 customers.

Warming temperatures are favorable for workers restoring power, but are also likely to cause new outages. As snow melts off trees that were bent over by heavy snow, some trees will spring back up into power lines.

Power is restored for nearly two-thirds of the customers who lost electric service due to storm damage. As of 11 a.m., the number of customers still without electric service include:

• Cabell -- 4,900
• Jackson -- 1,300
• Kanawha -- 1,100
• Lincoln -- 1,500
• Mason -- 2,500
• Putnam -- 3,400
• Roane -- 500
• Wayne -- 1,000

Currently there are nearly 700 locations at which repairs need made before all service is restored. More than 1,300 workers, including damage assessors, line workers and tree contractors are working to get power restored. The work force includes around 500 line workers and damage assessors from outside the area affected by the storm. Additional workers from Kentucky and Ohio will join the effort today.

Customers affected by the storm who are still without power should have service restored by Sunday night. Work may extend beyond the estimated time in isolated instances where damage is extensive or high water prevents crews from accessing work sites.

This update provides a broad overview of the company’s restoration efforts. Customers who sign up for Outage Alerts can now get specific information about the outage affecting their account. To sign up, go to appalachianpower.com and click “Sign Up Now” under the Outage Alerts heading.

A snapshot view of current outages is available anytime at appalachianpower.com. Go to the Outages and Problems section of the site and click "View Outage Map."