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The remnants of hurricane Helene arrived in Claiborne County Friday morning bringing high winds and heavy rains that caused hundreds of reports of downed trees and widespread power outages all across the county.

Crews from Powell Valley Electric worked through the weekend to restore power to tens of thousands in the county. They reported extensive damage to their service area, including downed wires, fallen trees, and more than 60 broken poles. Additional crews were called in from Northern Neck Electric Cooperative, NOVEC, Choptank Electric Cooperative and Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative to help with the restoration efforts.

As of 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, Powell Valley reported 297 outage locations affecting more than 4,500 members.

“Crews have been working tirelessly to repair the damage caused by the storm and have restored approximately 6,000 services today,” a post on the PVEC Facebook page read on Saturday night. “With over 60 broken poles, the restoration process will take time. Please rest assured, we are doing everything we can to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.”

Friday morning Claiborne County Mayor Joe Brooks put out a message on Facebook to warn citizens to use caution when driving due to the high winds downing trees and power lines and the rain possibly causing flash flooding in low lying areas.

The Claiborne County Courthouse closed at 10 a.m. on Friday due to phone, internet and power outages.

Claiborne County Schools designated Friday as a remote learning day for students. With power outages at several schools disrupting internet services, teachers and staff were allowed to leave at 10 a..m.

Brooks shared a post thanking the county’s highway department and law enforcement for their efforts on Friday.

“Citizens, what a long stormy day it has been. While many of you have been dealing with trees blocking the road, wind damage or being without power I would like to give some attaboys to the collaborative efforts to get everything back to normal,” he said. “The Highway department has been humping it all day. The men working at the Highway Department have worked over 12 hours to get the roads back open. Thank you all for your hard work. They have been assisted by the Sheriff’s Department and some of the volunteer fire departments. Thank you all for the assistance. Tazewell and New Tazewell Police departments have given mutual aide to the Sheriff’s Department and the assistance is greatly appreciated.

“911 has answered and dispatched hundreds of calls. Thank you for your hard work, and answering multiple calls about the same emergency. To the men and women working at EMS, thank you for responding to all the emergency calls and transporting those in need. To the county employees at the courthouse, justice center, health department and convenience centers thanks for making a run at it until the power outages made it impossible to work. Last but not least, to the men and women working at Powell Valley Electric answering calls and dispatching crews for repairs, especially the lineman, many who have been on the clock since early this morning and remain so until power is restored across the whole system. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

The Claiborne County 911 Facebook page started posting reports of weather related issues as they came in Friday morning for the day they received over 400 calls.

The Tazewell Police Department put out the following message Friday evening:

“Law enforcement, EMS, Fire and PVEC were literally answering calls all day long. Tazewell PD alone answered an estimated 40-50 calls. We can not stress enough how important our dispatchers were today through a power and internet outage answering calls and keeping help on the way they were rockstars! Thank you Allison, Carrol, Brittany and Margaret for keeping everyone going.

“Today was a trying event with trees on houses, cars, and roadways blocked in every direction. The collaboration between Claiborne County Sheriff’s Office, New Tazewell Police Department, Tazewell Police Department, Tazewell-New Tazewell Fire Rescue, Powell Valley Electric Cooperative and the Tazewell and New Tazewell Street Departments, Claiborne County Highway Department is what kept things operating.”