Va. storms silent county dispatch

By Jorge Valencia
The Roanoke Times

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. — The thunderstorms that swept through Southwest Virginia on Thursday caused the interruption of emergency services for more than an hour in Franklin County and a blaze on a Botetourt County livestock farm.

The police and fire dispatch office in Franklin County could not take any calls for emergencies between 7:30 p.m. and 8:42 p.m. because a power generator failed after a thunderstorm had already cut off electric service, Sheriff Ewell Hunt said.

Authorities staffed the 14 fire and rescue companies in the county. They sent out a message through two local television stations informing people they could call or go to the stations if they had an emergency, but none was reported, Hunt said.

Power shut off at the emergency dispatch office on East Court Street in downtown Rocky Mount at 4:20 p.m., Hunt said.

An emergency power generator was activated, but it failed about 7:30 p.m., disconnecting phone service because the lines were routed through an electrically powered server. The generator had been recently serviced, Hunt said.

The dispatch office went back in service once Appalachian Power Co. restored service at 8:42 p.m. Almost immediately, crews in Rocky Mount were called about smoke emanating near a building but did not find a fire, Hunt said.

In Botetourt County, lightning struck a barn about 4 p.m. at Edwards Cycle Road, just off Interstate 81’s Exit 156 toward Lee Highway, setting the building ablaze and burning two tractors, a hay baler, a hay rake and a horse trailer, said Troutville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Scott Paderick. No one was hurt. The property was a complete loss, Paderick said.