Appalachian Power Company says power was restored to all Floyd County customers Tuesday and the sun rises today with homes and businesses enjoying lights and heat.

About 370 customers in Roanoke remained powerless.  Other counties around Floyd have power but 10,000 APCO customers in deep Southwestern Virginia are still in the dark.  Nationwide, more than 8.2 million homes and businesses in 17 states are still out of electricity.

For the most part, Floyd County escaped major damage.  Some homes suffered damages from falling trees and heavy branches and Virginia Department of Transportation officials reported trees blocking a few county roads, mostly in the Check and Copper Hill area.

At the storm’s peak, power outages affected 570 APCO customers in the county.

Predicted snow accumulations never came.  Parts of West Virginia have 36 inches or more and accumulations of several inches hit Virginia counties close to the state line.

It could have been far worse and damages in Virginia did not approach the devastation in the northeast, where losses run into the billions and at least 30 people died.

Our closest call came Monday afternoon when a 100-foot tall poplar snapped in half during a wind gust and the top part of the tress crashed down in an open space between a motorcycle trailer, a shed and our tractor and riding lawn mower.  Normally, my Jeep Wrangler is parked in that space but I was in Floyd at the time.

Our power stayed on, no shingles disappeared from the roof  and I will be busy this weekend clearing branches off the lawn but that is all.

We were lucky.  Elsewhere in the county, others were not.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to them.