UPDATED 7/3/12 1:30 PM: NOVA Power Outage Information - 6/29/12-7/3/12

As of midnight, there are currently over 450,000 households without power in the Northern Virginia Area and widespread power outtages in the 44th District (including your state delegate's house).  This is over one-half of all households in Northern Virginia.

If you have a power outtage, please report it to Dominion and sit tight. 
You can reach them and view up to the minute outage information on the links below.

Dominion Resources Power Outage Line

1-866-366-4357

Dominion Resources Storm Center

Service Restoration Updates

Northern Virginia Outages Map

VDOT Street Problem Number
1 (800) FOR-ROAD

Fairfax County 911 Call Center is Down
For Emergencies Call Numbers Listed Here

If you have any prolonged outtages or if your street is blocked, feel free to contact my office at 571.249.4484.

I WILL CONTINUE TO POST INFORMATION HERE AS IT IS AVAILABLE.  NEXT DOMINION UPDATE AT 10:00 AM.

****DOMINION UPDATE AT 1045 A.M****

After Friday night’s storm, Dominion is working to restore power to over 450,000 customers in the Northern Virginia service territory.  We currently have teams patrolling and reporting damage assessments so we can effectively dispatch our repair crews.  At this point we know that there has been extensive tree damage at both the distribution and transmission infrastructure level.  We expect this to be a multi-day restoration effort.  Dominion personnel are being called in from across our entire service territory, while we are also working to bring in crews from neighboring utilities.

*****UPDATE - SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2012 10:00 AM******

As of 10:00 AM, there are still 285,658 homes without electricity in Northern Virginia including about 150,000 in Fairfax County.  Dominion has restored 351,000 houses so far.

There are approximately 10,000-15,000 outages remaining in the 44th District.  This represents about 5% of all outages in Northern Virginia and 10% of outages in Fairfax County.  You can see who is still affected by clicking on this link.  I've posted copy of the current map is below.  The bigger the dot, the bigger the outage.  You can click on each dot for information about the outage.

Dominion Interactive Outage Map

With temperatures approaching 100 degrees today, the County is reporting that Regional Libraries and RecCenters are open as cooling centers. In our area this includes:

• Sherwood Regional Library
• Mt. Vernon RECreation Center
• Lee District RECreation Center

(not clear to me if the George Washington RECenter is being used)
The City of Alexandria also has established cooling centers at its own Recreation Centers:

• Beatley Library 5005 Duke Street, Alexandria
• Charles Houston Recreation Center – 901 Wythe St., Alexandria
• Cora Kelley Recreation Center – 25 W. Reed Avenue, Alexandria

We have fielded about 20 phone calls and relating to outages.  Remember, to first call Dominion with outage information.  If you have a more urgent matter, feel free to call my office as well.  As you can see, Dominion is making progress, but there is still much work to be done.

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/1/12 3:00 P.M.***

Dominion Power provided me with the following update around 1:30 p.m.  There are still 143,221 households without power in Fairfax County

At the height of the storm the majority of our customers had lost service in Northern Virginia.  In fact, Friday’s storm was the largest non-hurricane related outage in our company’s 100-year history.  Damage in Northern Virginia far exceeded the damage we experienced from Hurricane Irene last summer.  We are continuing to work hard to restore service as safely and quickly as possible. We are now setting some milestones for restoration that include restoring approximately 80 percent of our affected customers by Tuesday evening. We are not yet able to provide address-specific restoration time frames. As we complete restoring critical infrastructure, we will next focus on the largest blocks of outages. Please note that the approximately 80 percent by Tuesday evening figure applies to our entire Virginia service territory.  In Northern Virginia we will work hard to get as close as we can to this number, but caution that we have had much more catastrophic damage than the system as a whole. For today, our priorities remain restoring critical services, including a continued focus on cooling centers and health care facilities, given the extreme heat. We are continuing to receive significant resources from other utilities that are in route to assist us that will be arriving over the next 24 hours.

As I get updates, I'll continue to post them here.

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/1/12 7:30 P.M.***

Here's the latest.

As of 7 o’clock this evening, about 345,000 customers were still without power. The company is working to restore service as quickly and safely as possible. We can now estimate that 80-85 percent of customers remaining without power will be restored by Tuesday night, 90-95 percent by Thursday night, and virtually all by the night of Saturday, July 7. However, service restoration will likely take longer in some severely damaged areas. This includes Northern Virginia, where more than 232,000 customers remain without power this afternoon, and in the Shenandoah Valley-western Virginia area, where about 64,000 remain without power. In some areas of the most extensive damage, restoration may not be completed until next Sunday, July 8. The company cannot at this time provide specific restoration times for individual customers. We are working to develop these estimates after completing additional assessments of damage and repair progress. We will make an announcement when individual restoration times for customers become available.  

You should also be aware that due to the intense heat, more thunderstorms are expected during each of the next several days, with the possibility of additional outages.  

Dominion crews are being assisted in their restoration efforts by utility crews from as far away as Wyoming and Quebec; so far, the company has received assistance from electric companies in 13 states. More than 1,200 workers from other utilities are either in the field helping us restore service or are on their way to assist. They will join about 2,000 Dominion workers, contractors, and retirees in the restoration effort.

*****VDOT UPDATE at 7/1/12 7:30 PM*****

Over 100 signals in the Northern Virginia District remain non-operational due to lack power. Our maintenance staff continues to partner with utility companies to clear the utility lines and restore power as soon as possible.

No roads in the 44th District listed as being blocked or closed.

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/2/12 8:30 A.M.***

Here's the outage map as of July 2, 2012 at 8:30 a.m.   There are 169,478 households still out in Northern Virginia.

Dominion Interactive Outage Map

Here are some pictures I took on the morning of July 2, 2012
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

 Famous Tree on Mason Hill Dates to George Washington

House of Fort Hunt Road that Had Tree Through Roof

Mason Hill Drive & Range Road

(Wires Everywhere)

Elba Road Looking South

Elba Road Hit Hard - Was Also Featured in New York Times

Woodmont Road in Bellehaven

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/2/12 3:00 P.M.***

Here's the latest:

Dominion Virginia power has now restored service to more than 75 percent of the more than 1 million customers left without service when severe thunderstorms struck the company’s system on Friday and Saturday evenings. As of shortly after 1 p.m., about 240,000 customers remained without power, with two-thirds of them were in Northern Virginia, one of the regions hardest hit by the storms.
The company has committed a workforce of approximately 5,000 to get the lights back on, including 3,500 Dominion workers, retirees and contractors, and 1,500 workers from other utilities as far away as Wyoming and Quebec. We are working to restore service as quickly and safely as possible, and have reconnected about 105,000 customers since 7 p.m. yesterday.

While we are making progress, we still estimate that we will have service restored to 80-85 percent of all customers affected by the storms by Tuesday night and 90-95 percent by Thursday night. Our crews are encountering significant damage in many areas and catastrophic in some, with downed spans of line, broken crossarms, and poles knocked down by trees. The company continues to estimate that full restoration in some of the areas of the worst damage may not be completed until Sunday, July 8. Damage is particularly severe in Northern Virginia, where about 160,000 customers remain without power, and in the Shenandoah Valley – western Virginia area, where about 47,000 customers are without service. We continue to analyze the damage and the progress of repairs. Until this additional analysis is completed, we cannot provide estimated restoration times to individual customers. We will make an announcement when individual restoration times for customers become available.

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/2/12 7:45 P.M.***

Here's an update I received around 7/2/12 at 7:45 PM:

Service has now been restored for more than three-fourths of the Dominion customers left without power by last week’s severe thunderstorms.  

More than 760,000 customers have been reconnected in the aftermath of the third largest outage in the company’s 100-year history and the largest outage not caused by a hurricane. Dominion has mobilized a workforce of about 5,000 to deal with the outages and get the lights back on for customers.  

Company personnel are being assisted by utility crews from 15 states and Canada. Crews have completed repairs at more than 7,600 identified damage locations. Power has been restored to more than 700 facilities identified as critical infrastructure, such as police and fire stations, water and sewer pumping stations, hospitals and long-term care facilities. Resources continue to be added to the restoration effort, and significant additional assistance from utilities in other states is expected tomorrow. 

The company has a target of restoring service to 80-85 percent of all customers affected by Tuesday night and to 90-95 percent of those affected by Thursday night. However, repairs in some of the most severely damaged areas may not be completed until Sunday, July 8.  

As of shortly after 6 p.m., more than half of the outages were located in Northern Virginia, which suffered widespread severe and in some cases catastrophic damage from Friday’s storm. Approximately 132,000 customers remain without service. About 100,000 customers have been reconnected in Northern Virginia since 7 p.m. Sunday. Another hard-hit region was the Shenandoah Valley-western Virginia area, where about 43,000 remain without power as of shortly after 6 p.m. These areas also suffered major damage from winds of up to 90 miles per hour on Friday night.

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/3/12 8:00 A.M.***

As of 8:00 a.m., outages are down to 86,000 which is 50% fewer than yesterday at this time.  Dominion is making progress.

 Here is the latest outage map.  As you can see, while they taking care of the large outages, these are revealing numerous smaller outages.  Dominion will work from biggest to smallest so to get an idea of when they are coming, you can see how many outages left are larger than yours.

Dominion Interactive Outage Map

CLICK TO ENLARGE

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/3/12 1:30 P.M.***

Dominion Power held a conference call with Fairfax County legislators today at 1:30 p.m.  Here's the bottom line.

• They are currently at 85% restoration. 
• The last 15% is the most difficult based on past practice. The last 15% usually involves trees, down poles, crossbars, etc.
• This is different than a hurricane because they typically have 7-10 days to prepare in terms of placing resources.  They lost 900,000 customers on Friday night, a tornado Saturday night, and a tornado on Sunday night. 
• Impact was 1.1 million customers originally. 
• They are down to about 38,000 customers without power in Fairfax County.  Down from 79,000 yesterday.
• They have 470 bucket trucks working today. They only had 300 yesterday.  They've got 2,800 people out working in the field and have requested another 200 people. 
• Customer's priority needs to be personal safety. 
• This is a storm no one has ever seen before.
• Irene affected 130,000 - this storm affected 585,000 people affected.  The damage this time was catastrophic - which means 30-40 broken poles. 
• By Friday they'll be close to 95-98% restored in Fairfax County.
• Right now they are finishing up working on main lines. 
• Once they've got main lines completed, then they will starting doing "neighborhood sweeps" where they complete entire neighborhoods. 
• The blue dots on the interactive map will be prioritized based on blocks of customers - in other words, if you are near a cluster of dots, you'll get hit first.  If you'll near a single dot on the map, you'll get hit last unless there are special circumstances.
• It's possible that you might see a contractor/crew out that only works on one things - e.g. trees - and so the crew might disappear. 
• Tomorrow mid-to-late day, they might be able to start predicting when power will be restored to your house - but only for that day - and you'll be able to see that on their online interactive map and their telephone system.  If you're not scheduled for completion that day, it won't say anything.
• Do not touch power lines even if you think they are not energized.  I personally witnessed someone get electrocuted by a power line when I was 12.  Do not go near wires.

We're still on the call right now at 1:44 p.m.

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/4/12 10:00 A.M.***

Here's the latest I received from Dominion.

After completing restoration to critical infrastructure and major delivery circuits in Northern Virginia, Dominion Virginia Power crews are working on repairing distribution lines and equipment serving smaller groups of customers in the region’s communities and neighborhoods.  Dominion remains in constant contact with local emergency operations services regarding critical needs.

As of 10:30 a.m. on July 4, approximately 31,000 customers remained without service in Dominion’s Northern Virginia region.   About 480,000 customers in this region were left without service following Friday night’s violent storms, the most severe non-hurricane related outage in the company’s 100-year history.  As of this morning, more than 90 percent of the customers in Northern Virginia have been restored. 

Dominion crews will continue to work round the clock until all power is restored.  We estimate that virtually all of Northern Virginia will be restored by Friday night.  A few customers in the hardest hit areas of the region may not be restored until Saturday.

Customer outages by locality are as follows:

Alexandria:                           6,236

Arlington:                              5,370

Fairfax:                                 16,504

Fairfax City:                             486

Falls Church:                            423

Loudoun:                               2,497

Fauquier:                                  979

Prince William:                       207

More than 500 bucket trucks and 2,900 personnel are now deployed in Northern Virginia to make repairs.  Dominion’s normal complement of line crews in the region has approximately tripled thanks to assistance from other utilities, contractors, and other parts of Virginia where damage is less severe. 

 Let me know if you are continuing to have problems and my staff can follow up.

***DOMINION POWER UPDATE 7/4/12 5:30 P.M.***

To everyone who says our part of the County always comes last, check out this map.