RICHMOND, Va. - Dominion Virginia Power has restored service
to more than 95 percent of its customers who lost power because of Hurricane
Isabel. Power was restored to all schools over the weekend.
As of 1 p.m. Monday, the company had restored power to more
than 1.7 million customers. About 88,000 of the 1.8 million customers affected
systemwide remain without power, with about half of those remaining outages
in Tidewater and the other half in Central Virginia, including Gloucester and
the Northern Neck. About 613,000 Tidewater and about 418,000 Central Virginia
customers were without power the morning after Isabel.
"With a workforce of more than 12,000, we are as dedicated
to getting the power back on for these remaining customers as we were when there
were 1.8 million outages. We will work as safely and as quickly as we can. Our
crews are involved in lots of difficult back-alley work in tight, tree-damaged
spaces," said Jimmy D. Staton, senior vice president-Operations.
Customers still without power can get individual estimated
restoration dates by calling the Dominion Customer Service Center at 1-888-667-3000.
The automated service has a recording to help walk customers through the process.
More than 400 agents are also available to take calls.
As cleanup continues, Dominion will remove electric line material
from customers’ roads and yards as well as work with cities and counties
as they remove felled trees and brush.
Dominion remains concerned about customer safety, especially
from downed power lines and improper use of generators. Residents are urged
to stay at least 10 feet away from downed power lines.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy,
with a diversified and integrated energy portfolio that includes 24,000 megawatts
of generation and 6.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves.
Dominion also serves 5 million retail energy customers in nine states.
