Preparing for Hurricane Irene

You may have heard that yesterday, Governor McDonnell declared a state of emergency throughout Virginia in anticipation of Hurricane Irene hitting the Commonwealth this weekend.

The storm is projected to reach us sometime on Saturday, but there are several things you should do to prepare before then.

The Virginia Department of Emergency Management has a website with some great resources on preparing for hurricanes(or any sort of disaster or emergency).

There are a couple key points on preparation:

• Put together an emergency preparedness kit. A supply of non-perishable food, clean water and a flashlight can go a long way to help people cope with any emergency situation.
• Communicate with your friends and family- come up with an emergency plan. Know whether or not you need to evacuate, where you can go and where you'll meet your family.
• Stay informed. Make sure you're aware of any evacuations, where to go for assistance and what the weather conditions are expected to be.

In the event that you or your neighbors lose electrical service, call Dominion Power at:

1-866-DOM-HELP
(1-866-366-4357)

If you are experiencing extremely long outages, please do not hesitate to contact my office so we can contact our Dominion liason at:

571-249-44TH
(571-249-4484)

You can also contact my office by email at scottsurovell@gmail.com. My office will be monitoring any outages and emergency response during the duration of the storm and it's aftermath.

If you have any other problems after the Hurricane also feel free to contact us. For example, the Bureau of Insurance can help facilitate the processing of insurance claims. We also have liasons with VDOT and Verizon. Please contact my office with any problems.

As always, please avoid unnecessary travel during inclement weather and be sure to check in with your neighbors who may have difficulty dealing with the effects of the storm.