PARKERSBURG - Around 7,000 Wood County residents were still without electricity Friday, but the number of outages continues to decrease every day.
Todd Meyers, spokesman for Monongahela Power, said at least 100 utility trucks from several states arrived Thursday and Friday, and linemen have been working hard to restore power and clear away fallen trees and downed power lines.
"It's intensive work, and the heat has been another challenge for crews," said Meyers.
On Friday, Mon Power reported 6,900 Wood County customers were still without power, down from 10,000 on Thursday. That leaves 16 percent of Wood County customers still affected, said Meyers.
Around 2,200, or nine percent, of Parkersburg residents were still without electricity, and more than 1,000 people, or 35 percent, of Williamstown/Boaz residents were still waiting for power.
The City of Vienna had a little more than 500 customers without power, and Washington had around 640 customers without power Friday.
Mon Power reported the following outages in surrounding counties Friday: 1,450 (31 percent) in Wirt County; 2,125 (33 percent) in Ritchie County; 1,997 (58 percent) in Pleasants County; 1,664 (86 percent) in Jackson County; 1,542 (40 percent) in Doddridge County and 1,849 (43 percent) in Calhoun County.
All counties saw some improvement between Thursday and Friday, said Meyers.
Across the river in Washington County, 2,700 AEP customers were still waiting for electricity in the Belpre/Marietta area, down from 4,500 on Thursday. About 10 percent of Washington County customers were still affected by outages Friday.
In the entire state of Ohio, around 80,000 (6 percent) of AEP's 1,457,000 customers were still in the dark.
An AEP Ohio spokesman said between 90- 95 percent of its customers will have power back by midnight tonight.
Many cooling stations in Wood and surrounding counties remained open for those without electricity.
The Home Depot in Vienna, like many hardware and other stores in the area, have been active since Friday's storm. Vienna store manager Kathy Parsons said Home Depot was able to open Saturday morning under generator power until full power was restored.
A lot of customers have been coming into the store throughout the weekend and the first part of the week, Parsons said. Much of the initial interest was in survival supplies like water and generators, while the last few days have also seen interest growing in cleanup supplies, ranging from chainsaws to batteries and many other items.
Parsons said the store has been able to maintain a constant supply of generators and other items by having items shipped in from other areas that were unaffected by the weekend storms.
The Lowe's stores in Vienna and south Parkersburg have been open and serving customers. The Vienna Lowe's has been serving as a distribution point for ice and water through the Red Cross and First Energy, officials said.
Temperatures are expected to reach 102 degrees today, with heat index values as high as 107 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Next week, temperatures will remain in the mid to high 80s.
For updated outage numbers from Mon Power, visit www.firstenergycorp.com, and for outage numbers from AEP Ohio, visit www.aepohio.com/outages/.
