GREENBRIER COUNTY -
Greenbrier County is preparing to welcome thousands of visitors to the area, but many residents are still without power, and even water.
Power has been restored to parts of White Sulphur Springs, Fairlea, and a small stretch of Lewisburg, but thousands remain without access to power or food supplies.
Lewisburg's Wal-Mart opened Monday morning, along with a gas station immediately off of I-64 in Lewisburg, but most restaurants across the county have not reopened since Friday's power outage.
"We were in the state early yesterday afternoon of running out of water. So we're asking people to conserve as much as possible," said Al Whitaker, director of the Greenbrier County Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The West Virginia National Guard is helping distribute water to various distribution points throughout the county.
"We'll be taking them to the Frankford Fire Department, White Sulphur EMS, Rhema Church in Fairlea, Alderson, Williamsburg, Rupert, and Rainelle," said Whitaker.
Generators have recently eased the pain of being on water reserve.
"We did get three generators down to the Lewisburg water plant. It was last night, it came on line at about five this morning. Water pressure is starting to increase," said Major Brad McGee with the West Virginia National Guard.
Access to fuel has become another obstacle with minimal power in the county.
While some gas stations have ran out of fuel, many have the fuel, but no power to open for business.
National Guardsmen are warning people coming to the area to fill up the tank before they arrive.
Until the main transmission lines are restored, fuel could remain scarce.
"AEP is working on that. They did say they were going to flood the county with linemen to try to get that power restored and we're just trying to help facilitate that," said McGee.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WVNS. All Rights Reserved.
