All schools in Upshur County will close at 1 p.m. today. All B-UHS sporting events today are canceled.

Equipment failure on transmission line causes widespread Upshur County power outage

An equipment failure on a transmission line feeding a French Creek substation knocked out power to about 4,000 Upshur County customers, with residents reporting bright flashes and loud booms.
High Voltage Power Line

An equipment failure on a transmission line is responsible for a power outage that affected approximately 4,000 customers in Upshur County, according to First Energy.

Two elementary schools in French Creek and Rock Cave were closed on Wednesday due to the outage, which occurred overnight.

Residents in Buckhannon reported seeing bright flashes and hearing loud booms late Tuesday night, followed by outages in the southern part of the county. Power was restored overnight, but early Wednesday morning, more flashes were reported, and power went out again over much of southern Upshur County.

Will Boye, senior communications representative for First Energy, said the outage is due to an equipment failure on a transmission line that feeds a substation in French Creek.

“Our crews are currently working to make repairs and restore service as quickly and safely as possible,” Boye said at about 9:40 a.m. Wednesday morning. “We expect to restore service within a couple of hours to the approximately 4,000 customers who are currently without power.”

The failure likely caused the flashes that residents reported.

“The flashes and sounds you referenced were likely due to the equipment failure on the line,” Boye said.

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