Ten days after a severe storm ripped through the area knocking power out to several thousand people in the Mountain State, lights are back on for most people. However, a second severe thunderstorm on Sunday night left about 100 to 125 Barbour County residents in the dark again, emergency officials said Monday.
Barbour County had power nearly completely restored following a severe thunderstorm on June 29 that left 53 of 55 counties in the state affected by power outages as a result.
"We had power restored pretty much to at least 95 percent of the county," Ron Gray, a representative of the Barbour County Office of Emergency Services, said. "The storm came through (Sunday) and knocked some power out in the area again due to downed trees."
According to the FirstEnergy Storm Center records found on the company website, as of Monday by about 3 p.m., Barbour County had 1,131 customers experiencing power outages.
MonPower, a FirstEnergy company, provides power to 7,000 Barbour County customers, Todd Meyers, a state and utility media contact for MonPower, said.
Gray said the National Guard is still on site helping to clean up the fallen trees. The new outages are "sporadic" and effect residents in various locations across the county including some in Union, Mount Liberty, along U.S. 250, Route 38, along 4-H Road, and in the vicinity of Philip Barbour High School.
"We've still got plenty of water if needed for distribution and ice," Gray said.
Water and ice are available to those in need at the Barbour County Fairgrounds.
In Randolph County, most people had their power restored from the June 29 storm by Monday.
"There were less than 200 people without power this morning," Randolph County Office of Emergency Management Director Marvin Hill said on Monday.
According to FirstEnergy's website, on Monday there were still 22,692 in West Virginia without power. There were162 people in Randolph County still without power around 3:15 p.m. on Monday. Other area outages include: 534 customers in Barbour; 947 in Pocahontas; 531 in Upshur; 427 in Lewis; 86 in Tucker; 11 in Pendleton; and less than five in Hardy County.
MonPower spokesperson Patti Michel said power should be restored to the rest of the customers by Wednesday evening, but some of the more remote locations could take additional time.
Hill said the last remaining cooling stations in Randolph County closed on Monday after a last batch of supplies were sent out. Hill added that there is still a state of emergency in effect for the county.
"If the federal and state government declares a state of emergency, it opens the purse strings for funding," Hill said. "We will start the damage assessment in Randolph County."
Hill said he hopes to begin putting together the costs of the storm as early as today.
"We will go out and collect as much information as possible," Hills said. "I have no idea of the costs right now."
Hill said if anyone in Randolph County had property damage from the storm, they should report it to their local fire department or the OEM office at 304-636-0483.
Power company officials said anyone without power should report their outage to their power company and not assume that a neighbor already has.
Contact Anthony Gaynor and Melissa Toothman by email at agaynor@theintermountain.com and mtoothman@theintermountain.com.
