Sandy blows out power to thousands

The tropical storm winds of Hurricane Sandy blew through Morgan County on Monday, October 29, leaving nearly 2,600 homes and businesses without power by Tuesday morning.

The area was spared widespread flooding, though some roads were closed due to water over roadways and low water bridges.

Most sections saw less rain than originally forecast, so the danger of flooding in the days ahead was reduced.

The National Weather Service predicted on Tuesday that the Cacapon River would crest at about 4 ft. above flood stage early Wednesday.

Early predictions had called for minor flooding of the Potomac River around Hancock and Paw Paw, but this was later downgraded.

At Hancock, the river was expected to crest at about 20 ft. on Wednesday morning, or 10 ft. below flood stage, according to the National Weather Service.

Outages could be lengthy
The lingering problem for many area residents were the power outages that occurred in all parts of the county and region.

At the height of the storm on Monday night, as many as 17,500 homes and businesses lost power in Potomac Edison’s local area. This included 2,582 customers in Morgan County, 9,059 in Berkeley County, 680 in Jefferson County and 5,138 in Washington County, Md.

In addition to power lines downed by fallen trees and branches, there were about a dozen 911 calls about burning power lines and electrical transformers on Monday and Tuesday.

The Division of Highways had full crews all night long removing trees and debris from roadways.

Potomac Edison reported that because of the severity of the storm and the number of customers affected, some of the outages may be lengthy.

Potomac Edison encouraged those without power to call 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877) to report their outage.

The 911 Dispatch Center reported a couple vehicle accidents caused by wet leaves on roads, but, accident-wise, “it was no worse than a rainy New Year’s Eve,” one dispatcher said.