WHEELING -As Ohio Valley residents continue to dig out and wait for power to be restored in many areas, the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for the region.
Snow cleanup and power restoration efforts will be in high gear today as crews rush to get ahead of the next snowstorm expected to dump upward of 6 inches Tuesday into Wednesday. The area is under a winter storm watch from Tuesday morning through Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
Lou Giordano, meteorologist, said this storm will be a more prolonged event, as opposed to the weekend storm that dumped heavy amounts in a relatively short period of time. Computer models still were uncertain this morning as to the exact track of the storm and predicted snow fall amounts.
Article Photos
Several large
trees sit atop two
vehicles parked at this home along Falls Drive in Ohio County. The trees toppled with the heavy snowfall on Saturday. Another
snowstorm is expected to hit
the Ohio Valley
on Tuesday.
Photo by Andy Lloyd
Giordano said the additional snow and an increase in the wind might mean more power lines are in jeopardy of coming down.
"Today is the day to accomplish a lot before it is thrown back on us," he said.
Schools have been canceled for most of the area.
Meanwhile, areas of the Northern Panhandle and East Ohio look like a war zone with many broken electric poles and downed trees littering the landscape following the weekend snowstorm that dropped more than a foot of snow in some places.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who declared a state of emergency for the entire state on Friday, was expected to fly over parts of the Northern Panhandle today to survey the damage. He planned to make a stop this afternoon at the Wheeling-Ohio County Office of Emergency Services located in the City-County Building in Wheeling.
Lou Vargo, director of the OES, had asked the governor for help from the National Guard which arrived in town on Saturday afternoon. Troops are helping to transport people out of snowbound areas and assist wherever needed.
There are presently 10 National Guard soldiers in Ohio County who have been assisting during the emergency, Vargo said. Those soldiers have been transporting residents with medical conditions for dialysis and other treatments.
Also, people from outside the area have been calling hsi office about family members that haven't been able to contact. The National Guard members have been going to check on those residents, he said.
Thousands of customers throughout the tri-state area are without electricity again today as sagging power lines and fallen trees have erupted service. Especially hard hit are rural areas in Belmont, Ohio, Jefferson and Brooke counties. The power outage also has affected water service in the outlying areas of Ohio and Marshall counties.
Vargo said today that power has been restored to the pumping station on Stone Church Road. As a result, homes in that area have regained water service.
"They are still without water in the Dallas Pike area," he said this morning. "But now that that the facility is back on, most of the water should be restored sometime today."
Currently, city and county workers are just trying to dig out from the weekend's storm as another is expected to hit on Tuesday, Vargo continued. Crews will be working throughout the day today, on Tuesday, and into Wednesday, he said.
Vargo also cautioned those who are are using electrical generators and fossil fuel heaters to heat their homes.
"Follow the manufacturer's directions. and make sure they are well-ventilated," he said, warning against the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning. "I tell people if they buy one of these, they might want to buy a carbon monoxide detector with it."
American Electric Power, which provides service to the Northern Panhandle and parts of Eas t Ohio, has had crews working long hours in an effort to locate outages and restore service. Drifting snow, icy roads and the large number of trees across roads and lines have hampered that effort.
According to AEP officials, crews and additional resources from external companies will work today to restore service to the remaining 11,800 customers without power,
Approximately 8,700 customers are without power in the Ohio Valley area. AEP Ohio estimates these areas will be 90 percent restored by midnight on Tuesday.
The following are outage numbers provided by AEP as of this morning:
A majority of those customers without power are in the Ohio Valley areas, including Steubenville and Wheeling. Customers are asked to report their outage again if they have not called within the past 24 hours. This will ensure that all consumers' electricity is restored as quickly as possible.