Power outages in Kanawha, surrounding counties

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Thousands of West Virginia residents are heading into the weekend in the dark after strong gusts caused power outages across the state Friday afternoon.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, Appalachian Power Company was reporting approximately 23,000 of its customers without service with Kanawha, Fayette and Lincoln counties all having more than 3,000 customers impacted.

Mon Power reported more than 20,000 of its customers without service as of 5 p.m. Friday. Upshur County had the most outages at 5,400 which represents 41% of the Mon Power customers in the county.

Wind gusts between 40 mph and 60 mph were common across the state Friday. A wind advisory remains in effect for the entire state until 8 a.m. Sunday. The eastern mountains have a high wind warning until 10 p.m. Friday.