PRINCETON — High winds and toppled trees left West Virginia and Virginia households in the dark Wednesday as turbulent weather whipped through the region.
For Mercer County, the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Va., forecasted breezy conditions with a southwest wind of 23 mph and gusts as high as 37 mph along with a tenth to a quarter inch of rain. Across the state line in Tazewell, Va., winds ranging from 25 to 40 mph were predicted.
A high wind warning remained in effect until midnight Wednesday.
In Bluefield, 29 customers were without power at 1:30 p.m., according to Phil Moye, a spokesperson for Appalachian Power. Crews also had to address problems at Old Bluefield Road where a piece of damaged equipment cut power to 57 customers from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
On Church Lane in Princeton, another piece of equipment damaged by high winds left 300 customers without power from 10:30 a.m. to approximately 1:15 p.m., Moye said.
Crews in Virginia also had to deal with outages as wind gusts damaged power lines. In North Tazewell, a broken power pole and downed lines put the area’s customers in the dark at 10:30 a.m. Moye said crews expected to have the power restored by 4 p.m. Ten customers in Thompson Valley were without power at 1 p.m.
More than 200 customers in Richlands, Va., did not have power when lines were damaged at 12:30 p.m., Moye said.
Winds also sent trees into the road, but no serious problems were reported Wednesday afternoon. The Bluefield, Va., Fire Department had to clear up fallen trees at Route 720 near the Bluefield, Va., Industrial Park and a second at Tazewell Road near Lynn Hollow Road.
“We’re anticipating more,” said Chief Jim Hardy. “We’ve been watching that flag out on the hill and it’s been staying straight out, so we figure we’ll be getting more.”
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
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