Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 3, 1995 TAG: 9502030046
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
During last weekend's snowstorm, Appalachian Power Co. didn't lose a single customer to a snow-related power outage.
However, if power lines had crashed as they did during last winter's ice storms, Apco could have expected its customers to be better informed about what it takes to get the power back on.
Since the 1994 storms, Apco's Roanoke Division has completed an eight-minute educational video explaining problems the utility faces when confronted with power outages caused by severe weather. The company has shown the video to civic clubs, and during January, Cox Cable of Roanoke aired it several times on Channel 9.
Among the video's first viewers was a civic group in Roanoke County's Back Creek area, which suffered long-lasting power outages last year.
Victoria Ratcliff, an Apco spokeswoman, explained that the need for an educational tool such as the video was recognized after the March 1993 blizzard that knocked out power in much of the eastern United States. Apco managers realized then that many customers didn't understand what was involved in restoring their service, Ratcliff said. "A lot of people thought we'd just have to flip a switch here to get their power back on."
Apco contracted with WDBJ's (Channel 7) production department to videotape the company's workers restoring power after the next big storm and to produce a finished video. But after making those plans, company officials expected it would be six or seven years before another big storm provided the opportunity to tape, Ratcliff said.
Mother Nature, however, had her own plans.
Major storms hit the Roanoke Valley in January, February and March of 1994. During the February ice storm, 200,000 Apco customers in Virginia and West Virginia lost power; 140,000 were hit by outages in March, including 60,000 in the Roanoke Valley. Apco President Joe Vipperman said that during a 12-month period in 1993-94, Apco suffered storm damage seven times greater than at any other time in the company's history.
Mark Layman, a former news photographer for WDBJ, shot footage of Apco crews restoring power during the February and March storms. Mike Handley, a free-lance spokesman from Warrenton, narrated the video.
Apco repair workers and customer service employees also were featured. Apco personnel staffer Sam Hartman and his family posed in opening and closing segments as a typical family losing power to a storm.
The video helps Apco customers understand such things as how their neighbors may have electric service while they do not, and why workers fix main lines first and then work their way back along the branch lines until all power is restored.
After other Apco divisions heard about the video, which cost less than $10,000 to produce, they asked for copies for their own use, Ratcliff said. The company, she said, has had a lot of positive response from people who have seen it.
The video was not intended so much to ward off complaints as to answer questions, Ratcliff said. Most of the people who call about losing power are asking questions rather than complaining, she said.
by CNB