WAR — In a time of recession, factors beyond one’s control can become a crushing burden. For many households and businesses in the Virginias, one particular burden grew even greater during recent winter storms — the electric bill.

Power bills in the hundreds of dollars are becoming a common problem for consumers in West Virginia and Virginia. One local agency serving those in need on both sides of the state line is seeing both the employed and the unemployed come in and ask for help with huge electric bills.

Director Craig Hammond of the Bluefield Union Mission predicted in January that human service agencies would see a “tsunami,” a tidal wave of people needing utility assistance.

“That prediction came true,” Hammond said. “We’ve just had a heavy flow of people every day for the last month, especially the last two weeks. It really intensified. We’ve actually had a tsunami of people from both sides of the border. In many cases, in most cases, it’s just overwhelming. In a couple of cases, they (bills) exceeded their income, especially on the Virginia side. It seems they had interim rate changes and other charges.”

Hammond doubted that the number of people seeking help would subside.

“I believe we here in the mission and other agencies should brace for this steady stream of people seeking help to continue. It’s here for quite a long time. Wages are not increasing, and most of the people we serve are unemployed or have minimum wage jobs with 30 hours or less. What they make is not even close to keeping up with high energy costs,” he said.

Thousands of people in both Virginias lost electricity after a major winter storm covered the region on Dec. 18, 2009. Many expected lower power bills after days without service, but this prediction did not happen in some cases.

“In January, we had many complaints at city hall about the Appalachian (Power) bills,” said Mayor Tom Hatcher of War, a town in McDowell County. “Of course, it was a 41 day bill, which naturally would make it higher, but most people were complaining because we didn’t have electricity in this area for five days after that Dec. 18 storm, so most people were probably expecting a lower bill.”

In the bills was a note stating that the 41 day bill had been estimated and that meters had not been read, Hatcher said, adding that his own bill had grown from $214 in Dec. 2009 to $318 on Jan. 1.

Hatcher said one person he knew, a grandmother, had a $900 bill.

“As with a lot of towns in McDowell County, we have an elderly population on fixed incomes, and when you get enormous bills like this, it’s prohibitive. I don’t know how anybody could afford a $900 bill for one month,” he said.

The large electric bills have been a new experience for many residents in southern West Virginia.

“Oh, they’ve been horrible,” said Glenda Arrington, 60, of Jolo. “We’ve had the biggest electric bills we’ve ever had in our lives and we had a heat pump put in our house a couple of years ago. That’s supposed to be more economical, but now electric bills have almost doubled. Our power bills even before we put the heat pump in were $150, $160, the most it ever would be, but now it’s $250 and we have a fairly small house.”

The bigger bills have forced cutbacks, she added.

“We’ve even had to cut back on groceries and everything. My husband’s on a fixed income and we have a very close budget. It’s very difficult. We’ve even had to sacrifice our grocery budget, and that’s sad because you can’t buy what you want to eat because of bills. And the sad thing is we get poor service. The electric lines are in poor shape. They’re spliced together, trees are in the lines, and the wind could just barely be blowing and the power goes out. It’ll flip off and then you’ve got power surges that can tear up appliances,” Arrington said.

Brenda Barton, who operates a beauty shop in the McDowell County community of Falls Creek, said the cost of electricity is a common topic of conversation.

“One of my ladies had a $600 electric bill. Eventually it’s going to settle up with them and she’s not going to have the money. How’s this ever going to work out for her?” Barton asked.

Barton and other residents of her area are calling for members of the state Public Service Commission to be elected by the public instead of being appointed.

“Well, I feel like this PSC we have to keep answering to, they’re just like a rubber stamp, and nobody’s regulating them. It’s just like a rubber stamp. They (power companies) ask for 12 percent (more), they get 12 percent,” Barton said. “When I called to the governor, I felt like I was put off. I know the PSC won’t back down. The only way I understand to get this raise overturned is if lawmakers take it up. We’ve had a real hard time.”

Beverly Hale of Canebrake in McDowell County also advocated the election of PSC commissioners.

“My last bill was $218. I have lived in a doublewide since 1988 and this is the largest bill I have ever paid. I know there’s people out there who have far worse,” she said. “I talked to a man at AEP (American Electric Power) for 45 minutes. He said to cut the thermostat down to the 60s. Most of our elderly can’t stand that. But the man was nice to me, and sent me a book about cutting costs.”

Hale said that she and other residents have fought against increases in water rates and other utilities, but feel that the PSC is unresponsive and that decisions are made before public hearings are held.

“They tell us rates have been approved and there’s nothing we can do but suck it up and go on,” she said.

Nancy Hopkins, 76, of Squire said she and her husband, John, have seen their electric bill climb, too.

“We should have some say and somebody needs to pay more attention to us and listen to us and try and do something about it,” she said. “Not just listen to us and do whatever they want to do. My biggest concern is the people who live on Social Security only. Their electric bill in some cases is as large as their check.”

Delegate Clif Moore, D-McDowell, said the West Virginia State Code does not have provisions at this point that would allow the state to roll back electric rates.

“We have met with AEP on several occasions trying to investigate the cause and the factors for all these really high utility costs,” Moore said.

The company’s explanation was that the bills were not based on rate increases, but because “it was so cold for so many days and the billing cycle for last month included a longer billing cycle than normal, which created inflation in the normal utility costs. They are saying when the cold snap and the bad weather period is over, those rates should revert to normalcy,” Moore said, adding that he and other legislators from the McDowell, Mercer and Wyoming counties district would continue speaking with power company officials.

Appalachian Power offers a program called the Enhanced Payment Plan to help customers who have problems paying their bills, said spokesman Phil Moye in West Virginia.

“They can call us and we will work with them on a payment arrangement. That’s something we’ve always done,” Moye said. Appalachian Power can also direct customers having financial hardships to programs such as Neighbor-to-Neighbor in Virginia and the Dollar Energy Program in West Virginia.

Some bills were estimated in December during the storms that knocked out power to thousands of customers in both states, Moye said. Some meter readers were helping fix storm damage. Bills are based on actual readings “most of the time,” he said.

If a reading shows the bill was less than estimated, the following bill would be less, reflecting what was overpaid the month before, Moye said.

The toll-free number for Appalachian Power’s Customer Solutions Center is 1-866-276-5831.