
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 14, 1994                   TAG: 9412140141
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CUT CABLE LEAVES APCO CUSTOMERS IN THE COLD

Chilly temperatures Tuesday hindered the efforts of Appalachian Power Co. workers who were trying to restore power to about 8,600 customers in Southwest Roanoke and Roanoke County.

As workers began to turn power back on, a surge of demand from furnaces and heat pumps all kicking in at once caused outages all over again.

"That puts an awful lot of draw on the lines at once," said Apco spokeswoman Victoria Ratcliff.

The power outage occurred just before 3 p.m., when a crew contracted by Apco for construction work on the Cave Spring substation at Virginia 419 and Brambleton Avenue accidentally cut an underground cable, Ratcliff said.

Customers were affected from Colonial Avenue and Penn Forest Boulevard to Garst Mill and Poages Mill roads. Ratcliff said once the problem with recurring outages was discovered, crews began restoring power one section at a time.

Ratcliff said the last customers, about 30 in the Poages Mill area, got their power back just before 7:30 p.m.

by CNB