Collegiate Times

Tropical storm Sandy ravaged the Northeast Monday night, leaving over 30 dead and more than 8 million without power along the East Coast.

However, Blacksburg and Virginia Tech were left relatively unscathed after the storm.

Though strong wind tore through the area Monday night and continued during the day Tuesday, Appalachian Power reported very few outages in Montgomery County.

“We have about 500 customers without power,” said Appalachian Power spokesman Todd Burns. “That’s only around 1 percent of our 37,600 Montgomery County customers.”

Most power outages were in the Prices Fork area. Burns expected power to be restored quickly.

Initial estimates that power for those customers would be restored by Tuesday afternoon were revised after crews found a downed tree had damaged equipment more severely than anticipated.

Burns still expected Montgomery County customers to have service restored before the end of the day.

By noon on Tuesday the company reported 28,157 customers to be without power in areas serviced outside of Montgomery Country, including expanded regions in Virginia and Tennessee.

Most outages were blamed on strong wind gusts.

Flooding and damage from the storm have paralyzed other parts of the country, including New York City, where trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was suspended for a second straight day.

The global financial center hopes to reopen Wednesday, despite serious damage to infrastructure. Roads and subway tunnels remained flooded, severely restricting access to the city.

New Jersey was also hit hard. Almost 90 percent of Jersey Central Power & Light customers were without power Tuesday morning.

The mid-Atlantic region was not as heavily affected, and has started to return to business as usual.

In Washington D.C., where federal offices were closed in anticipation of the storm, Metro trains started running again by Tuesday afternoon. Limited service at Washington Reagan National Airport had also been restored.

In West Virginia, residents across 12 counties suffered blizzard conditions that dumped more than two feet of snow on parts of the state. Severak roofs collapsed, and more than 250,000 residents were left without power, including 149,000 Appalachian Power customers.

Winds, snow and rain are expected to continue in the northeast today, as will flooding, especially in coastal regions.

In Blacksburg, a winter weather advisory remains in effect until 8 a.m. Wednesday. 
One-to-three inches of snow could accumulate through the afternoon; winds of 30 miles per hour could make it feel as cold as 20 degrees in the morning. 

Follow this writer on Twitter @KulakCT

A version of this article appeared in the Oct 31 issue of the Collegiate Times.