The June 29, 2012 derecho caused about 1.6 million West Virginia residents to lose electricity at some point. The National Weather Service issued severe thunderstorm warnings for counties all along the storm’s path, but the weather system, fueled by triple-digit temperatures, was much more intense than a regular thunderstorm. Wind gusts as high as 78 mph toppled trees and tore down some power transmission towers; damages to the state’s power transmission infrastructure exceeded $170 million.
Some were without electricity for more than two weeks. Some cellular communication towers and landline telephones lost service and 27 of the state’s 50 911 centers were affected. Some broadcasters that typically relay emergency information were knocked off the air. In the days that followed, gasoline became scarce as residents flocked to fuel up, making it difficult for officials to keep emergency generators running.
Terrance Lively, public information officer for the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the state has since invested in about 50 generators. They can be put into place to power critical facilities, such as 911 centers or hospitals, in the event of an emergency.
“These generators have been repaired (when needed) and checked for proper working order by the West Virginia National Guard,” Lively said. “We have these assets available for critical infrastructure during power outages from disasters. Some of the individual facilities have also worked with the local emergency management offices to apply for federal mitigation funds for generators.”
Lively said the storm and its aftermath was a learning experience for the state and has helped officials respond better to other emergencies. Lively said members of the public should now be aware that they ought to have enough emergency supplies — including food, water and necessary medication — to be self-sustaining for at least 48 hours because help may not show up right away. That said, he also noted that response times have improved since then.
Breakdowns in communications were one of the many issues highlighted in an after-action review ordered by Tomblin and released in 2013 — in particular, poor communications between emergency officials and utility companies.
Complicating matters, 20 generators were stolen from Frontier Communications after the storm and only five were recovered. Generator theft “dropped significantly” during the Hurricane Sandy emergency response later in 2012 because police patrols were coordinated near utility companies’ generators.
Phil Moye, spokesperson for Appalachian Power, which serves one million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, said his company and its parent company, American Electric Power, have established an incident command that coordinates power restoration efforts in the event of a widespread power outage. He said that model is much like the emergency response protocols used by state and local governments, and it allows for a better flow of information between the power company and emergency agencies.
The company has also developed an outage notification system that allows the company to disseminate critical information directly to customers via email or text message in the event of an outage.
“The outage alerts provide a means for us to proactively communicate with customers and let them know about their outage, what caused it and when it would be repaired – all the information they would need to know about their outage,” Moye said.
Customers can visit www.appalachianpower.com/alerts to subscribe.
Perhaps the biggest changes Appalachian Power made in the wake of the derecho is the way it maintains its right-of-ways — the area beneath and around power lines. Moye said that in the past, crews would remove vegetation from right-of-ways on an as-needed basis. But as the derecho knocked trees and limbs onto lines statewide, Moye said it was evident the company needed a different strategy for keeping up with the growth.
Going forward, Appalachian Power will cut the areas around right-of-ways on a four-year rotating cycle. That takes more man-hours and costs more money, which is part of the company’s justification for requesting a 16-percent rate increase in 2014. The state Public Service Commission approved a 9-percent rate increase for Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power on May 26.
Moye said the more frequent right-of-way maintenance may not make much of a difference during a major weather phenomenon like the 2012 derecho, but it would make the infrastructure more resilient to normal snow, wind and thunderstorms, and will result in less frequent power outages.
“Since (the derecho) we have doubled the number of tree crews in our West Virginia service area, and the biggest single item in that rate case was the right-of-way maintenance,” Moye said.
Counties are also finding new ways to relay information to residents. Greenbrier County emergency director Al Whitaker said he has been encouraging residents to sign up for the county’s own public notification system. Not only can residents get alerts delivered to their phones in the event of an emergency; they can also give the county crucial information, such as medical conditions or disabilities, that can allow responders to more quickly assist residents with special needs in the event of an emergency.
“We’ve had it for a while and we keep pushing people to go on there and sign up because more and more people are using cellphones,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker said the county has received two new generators since the derecho, including a secondary backup generator for its 911 center, which went offline in 2012 because of the run on fuel following the storm.
“We now have redundant backup,” Whitaker said. “We have two different backup generators with three different fuel sources.”
Though not every critical piece of infrastructure has been equipped with a backup generator on-site in the wake of the disaster, Homeland Security spokesman Lively said state officials have been able to better prepare to mobilize them if needed. He said buildings have been surveyed so that emergency officials know exactly what kind of generator a particular facility would need in the event of a power outage, and agreements have been made that would allow for the sharing of state and private assets depending on which can provide assistance to a particular area faster.
“We’ve been able to secure generators for critical facilities and other facilities have really identified what needs they have,” Lively said. “If they haven’t been able to purchase a generator, they at least know what their base needs are for a generator which makes it much easier for us to get a generator to them. We don’t have to send someone out there to identify what they need before we can even deploy a generator. The needs are very different from one public service district to another, to a hospital.”
Though many improvements have been made since 2012, officials say the best emergency preparedness to plan is your own. Lively said each disaster is different and emergency response times can be unpredictable, so residents should make sure they have what they need to survive before disaster strikes.
“It takes time for the government to spin its wheels up and get help to people,” Lively said. “That first 24 to 48 hours, we really can’t emphasize enough that people need to be self-sufficient for that time period.”
———
©2015 the Charleston Daily Mail (Charleston, W.Va.)
Visit the Charleston Daily Mail (Charleston, W.Va.) at www.dailymail.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
