‘We know how hot it is:’ Crews working overtime to get power restored across Central Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Dominion Energy is working to get the lights back on for many customers still without power 24 hours after a severe storm swept through on Sunday evening.

At the peak, Dominion reported 158,000 outages across the state.

About 90,000 of those were from Henrico, Hanover and Western Richmond.

“It’s just widespread damage. It’s just the distribution of the outages that I think we find most notable,” Craig Caper, Dominion Energy Spokesperson, said.

On Monday, crews were scrambling to restore power across Central Virginia. It included one neighborhood on York Road in Richmond’s near West End where nearly 90 residences were in the dark.

“Between five and six o’clock last night, there was a tremendous explosion, and then the power went out on this street, York [Road], and that street, Henri [Road]. And it turned out, maybe, what happened is that tree down on the corner, a major fork of that tree came off into these lines and was heavy enough that it broke everything all the way down to this house here,” resident Noel Clinard said.

The storm’s high winds caused trees to fall on power lines.

“What’s the cause of these outages? It’s broken poles, broken cross arms and broken wire,” Carper said.

Bishop Bosher of Mechanicsville was picking up debris early Monday morning on his property before the heat became unbearable.

“No power, it’s hot, and I want to get it done before I can’t go back into the cool, because I’m sure we’re gonna be out of power for a little while,” Bosher said.

Carper said crews are working 16-hour shifts in the extreme heat to get power restored as fast as possible, but taking breaks as needed.

“Every bucket truck has a cooler full of water, Gatorade, everything they need to stay hydrated. And they’re taking care of each other,” Carper said.

As for staying cool inside until A/C is restored, Carper recommends closing all of your window shades.

“That’s a big deal. Don’t let any more hot air into your house. You know the sun is heating, especially when the A/C is out,” Carper added.

And for your safety, if you have any downed trees or power lines in your area, please do not attempt to clear them yourself.

“We’ve got forestry crews, tree specialists, out here that are removing trees where necessary, removing debris, so they can go in and get everybody reenergized,” Carper said. “Anytime you see a downed span of wire, we tell everybody, stay 30 feet away. Assume that it’s energized. Make sure your kids, your other family [and] pets are staying away from it as well.”