by Samantha Hamilton–
Families in the New River Valley are experiencing power outages that are believed to be a result of the temperature drops Southwest Virginia is currently experiencing. The outages have affected areas such as Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Radford, Fairlawn, Shawsville, and some neighborhoods in Roanoke.
“Usually power outages are a result of insufficient generation online to support the high demand surrounding them,” said technical electrician Antoine Holland.
Home electric power systems are made to withstand extreme weather in most cases says Holland. However, according to National Geographic, “If temperature extremes are worse than forecast or happen faster than forecast it can result in local or widespread overloads that may cause service to some neighborhoods to go offline automatically or switch to rotating blackouts.”
As the temperatures continue to fall and threats of more power outages increase many families are concerned about staying warm.
“Without power, you can’t have heat. Luckily, we have a gas stove so that can help us, but there are others who don’t have that,” said Blacksburg power outage victim Kyra Parker.
But it isn’t just heat that can be a problem, refrigerators will stop running causing food spoilage. Parker says her family makes sure to keep non-perishable foods in their pantry.
The time it takes to get back online varies based on circumstances with outages lasting anywhere from hours to weeks.
“Your region, neighborhood, circuit, powerlines, underground lines, even workers…they all have a role in determining how long it will take to restore power,” said Holland.
It’s scary not knowing, no one likes being in the dark Parker admits. Power companies have started adding ‘check outage status’ tabs to their websites allowing families to get an estimate on repair time.
“Appalachian Power keeps us updated,” said Parker. “Our recent outage only took 2 hours to restore power.”
According to Edison International, extreme weather isn’t the only cause of power loss. Vehicles, trees, animals, earthquakes and even people can be responsible. No matter the situation it’s always important to have a plan.
Holland believes taking the extra precautions now can protect your family when it matters.
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