Power outages impact tens of thousands in Central Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Wednesday night’s storm had thousands in the Charlottesville-Albemarle-Greene area waking up without power.

“We’ve seen some freezing ice on trees, and some trees falling down and impacting power lines,” Dominion Energy spokesperson Craig Carper said.

The aftermath of the storm left trees covered in ice fallen in the middle of neighborhoods and power lines strewn across yards.

The impact was swift and widespread. For Dominion Energy, 56,000 customers were impacted. More than 3,500 of those were estimated to be in the Albemarle County area.

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative spokesperson Casey Hollins said at its peak, roughly 24,000 outages were reported.

“We have been monitoring the winter weather that was forecast to come into our service territory,” Hollins said. “Anytime that we hear ice, that puts us into high alert because it can really wreak havoc on our power lines.”

Hollins says the damage resulting from several hours of icy rain will now take days to repair in some areas.

“It can take anywhere from three to five hours to replace one broken pole, we are expecting for outages to continue in some areas into the weekend,” Hollins said.

Carper said for Dominion, that preparation means repairs will be coming a lot sooner for its customers.

“The good thing about this event is we saw it coming, but we believe we believe we will get the vast majority of everyone affected by this storm restored by 11 o’clock,” Carper said.

While crews are at work, Hollins says safety is the most important thing.

“That’s our top priority,” Hollins said. “Anytime that you come across a downed power line, you should not assume that it is without power.”

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