Storm Causes Power Outages Here

The storm system resulting from the landfall of Hurricane Helene Thursday night pushed through the Rockbridge area last Friday. Heavy rains and strong wind caused multiple blackouts over several days, and some area schools closed on Friday as a precaution.

Flooding, however, was limited to some overflowing streams and did not cause significant problems.

Early Friday morning, the National Weather Service outpost in Blacksburg issued a severe flood watch for the area, through Friday night.

Later in the morning, it issued a moderate wind advisory, with east winds of 20-25 miles per hour, and gusts up to 50 miles per hour, lasting until 8 p.m.

Local school officials, who had watched the approach of the storm, prepared for trouble, with Buena Vista City Schools and Rockbridge County Public Schools closing Friday. In Lexington, schools were open as usual.

Rainfall related to Helene totaled between 3 and 5 inches for Rockbridge County, with the western and southern regions of the county receiving the most moisture.

Because it had rained for several days before the hurricane’s aftereffects hit, the ground was soft and wet. Buena Vista, for instance, received 3.32 inches of rain in the five days prior to the storm’s arrival Friday.

When the wind picked up Friday, it resulted in many trees being knocked down, including some on power lines. Some areas of the county experienced multiple power outages over the weekend, even after electricity had initially been restored.

BARC was busy all weekend clearing trees and restoring power. BARC serves customers in five Virginia counties, including Rockbridge.

According to BARC representative Amanda Cunningham, “At the peak, on Sept. 27, BARC had around 4,500 members out of power. Over the past weekend, we had 115 total outages to respond to.

“BARC’s territory had multiple days of moderate to heavy precipitation, followed by an extended period of sustained winds with occasional intense gusts that caused trees to uproot, falling into powerlines,” said Cunningham.

Dominion Energy crews were also busy all over Buena Vista and the county. Jeremy Slayton, a media representative for Dominion Energy, stated to The News-Gazette in an email that “approximately 940 customers in Rockbridge [were] impacted during the storm and approximately 610 customers in Buena Vista [were] impacted during the storm.” Friday afternoon was the peak time for power outages.

“As is typical in a storm of this nature, our crews saw trees down on our lines, broken poles and cross arms and downed wire,” said Slayton. Crews worked diligently all weekend on the outages, with power being restored by the day after the outage, if not within a few hours, he said.

In a call with The News-Gazette, Rockbridge County Fire Chief Nathan Ramsey said that they had received 60 calls for trees downed over the weekend, with 54 of those coming in on Friday.

Ramsey said South River Road was the only road closure, as the South River rose to 9 1/2 feet at its deepest point on Friday night, with water pooling on the road. The river, which usually maintains an average depth of just under 4 feet, is considered at its flood stage once it exceeds 8 feet.

Despite some inconveniences, the storm didn’t cause an unusual level of destruction. “It wasn’t any more severe than you’d expect from rain and wind at this level,” said Ramsey.