Tens of thousands of Appalachian Power customers lost electricity Friday after a powerful line of storms ripped through the southern half of West Virginia.
As of 6:15 p.m., about 51,000 of the company’s customers in multiple West Virginia counties were without power.
Phil Moye, a spokesman for the utility, said the “vast majority” of the outages were due to storm activity. Moye added there was a possibility of strong winds and storms on Saturday.
Friday’s outages coincided with a National Weather Service excessive heat warning, which remained in place through 9 p.m.
The counties included Cabell, Mason, Jackson, Wood, Lincoln, Putnam, Kanawha, Roane, Wirt, Calhoun, Ritchie, Logan and Boone.
The warning included portions of northeast Kentucky and southeast Ohio.
These areas could be exposed to extreme heat and humidity, with heat index values of up to 110 degrees. Such conditions increase the potential for heat related illnesses.
A heat advisory was also in place through 9 p.m. for other portions of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.
Appalachian Power is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.