The snow and ice started on Thursday morning, leaving Main Street covered with a layer of snow and sleet and the roads nearly devoid of traffic.

1,400 lose electricity in storm

A total of almost 1,400 Alleghany County residents lost their electricity last Thursday as freezing rain capped a morning of snow and sleet in the area. More lost power briefly on Friday.

For one 30-minute period, a tree on a power line knocked out electricity to 992 people in the Sparta area. That outage took place between 5:35 p.m. until 6:04 p.m. and was cleared up quickly due to a customer call-in. “We had one member who called in with very specific location information on a tree that had struck a power line,” said Renee Whitner, public relations director for Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation.

In addition to the brief Sparta outage, Blue Ridge Electric linemen worked throughout the day to restore power to 900 people in its coverage area. Most of the damage was caused by falling trees and limbs that were broken by ice buildup. Blue Ridge Electric called in extra linemen to assist with power restoration efforts.

The first Alleghany outages that day were caused by a tree falling on a power line in the Mertie Road area at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. Some were without power for several hours.

In addition, 250 people lost electricity in Caldwell County, 150 in Watauga County and 92 in Ashe County (near the Alleghany line on N.C. 88).

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