WEST JEFFERSON, N.C. — More than 100 power crews arrived in the mountains to help Blue Ridge Energy restore electricity to thousands of customers following Thursday's winter storm.
According to the utility, the majority of the outages were in Ashe and Alleghany Counties, where crews were expected to work through the weekend. As of 10:30 p.m. Thursday, more than 4,200 customers were in the dark.
The concern going into Friday morning was black ice forming on wet roads with temperatures dipping below freezing.
Several schools are on a two-hour delay Friday because of the outages and threat of icy roads including Ashe and Watauga counties.
Lineman Josh Greene said he saw a lot of damage after beginning his shift Thursday morning.
"A lot of trees down, ice, got the trees laying over the line," Greene said. "It's starting to melt off, but there's still some more damage to come."
According to North Carolina Highway Patrol, Troop F, which covers the mountains and foothills, saw a jump in car crashes. Since Monday, when the wet weather began, troopers in the foothills and mountains recorded nearly 300 collisions.
Of those collisions, 62 happened just in the past 24 hours as the winter storm pushed through the area.
NBC Charlotte's Evan West contributed to this report.
