The Pendleton County Commission offers several remotely located camera views to the public. These views are intended to provide the public with situational awareness or weather and road conditions. Some provide a highlight of the scenic viewsheds as well. The cameras can be found at https://pencowv.com/traffic-webcams.
Rick Gillespie, Pendleton County Emergency Services Coordinator, oversaw the installation of the cameras and ensures their upkeep and operation. Regarding recent outages of the Shenandoah Mountain camera, Gillespie reminds the public that those specific cameras were installed by the Virginia Department of Transportation in cooperation with Pendleton County. The maintenance and operational upkeep of those cameras is performed by VDOT contractors.
Gillespie further advised that the Shenandoah Mountain cameras rely on solar power as their power source. During periods of time with several days of clouds and no sun, the system eventually runs out of power. Gillespie stated, “More often than not, when you see the Shenandoah Mountain cameras inoperative, there’s nothing anyone can do. They simply need some sunshine.” He added, “The cameras are monitored at the 911 Center, as well as by others. When we have outages, we are aware of the issue and we make every effort to restore them as soon as possible.”
Gillespie noted that several of the cameras each have been viewed approximately 68,000 times in the past 90 days.
Two of the cameras on the website, Allegheny Mountain and Hunting Ground Mountain, now have links to take the user to data of nearby weather gauges. The gauges show air temperature, rain and wind data. The gauges are installed and maintained by the West Virginia Emergency Management Division and are a part of the statewide Integrated Flood Observation and Warning System.