RICHMOND, Va. - Line crews working around the clock, neighborhood
by neighborhood, have restored power to 1.3 million Dominion customers in Virginia
and North Carolina who lost service as a result of Hurricane Isabel.
On Wednesday, the sixth day of the restoration effort, Jimmy
D. Staton, senior vice president-Operations, said, "We are well within
reach of our goal of restoring power to 75 percent of our customers by Thursday.
Once we have reached that milestone, we will project the last stages of the
restoration effort."
Approximately 480,000 customers remain without electricity
as of 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The company restoration workforce swelled to more than 11,000
Tuesday and additional crews, including teams from Duquesne Light from Pennsylvania
and Consumers Energy from Michigan arrived Wednesday to assist with the effort,
bringing the total restoration force to 11,159.
However, Staton said the hardest part of the restoration effort
may still lie ahead as crews move deeper into particularly hard-hit neighborhoods
and subdivisions in parts of Central Virginia, Tidewater and northeastern North
Carolina.
"The amount of devestation we're finding in some of those
areas is horrific," Staton said. "Our crews are reporting that power
poles and lines are practically unrecognizable they are so mangled and twisted.
Some areas are just about impenetrable.
"For those crews, this is getting down to hand-to-hand
combat," Staton said.
Damage discovered during this phase of the restoration effort
has led Dominion to increase its estimates of destruction to its system. The
preliminary assessment completed Sunday estimated 2,311 broken utility poles
and 3,899 snapped cross arms. Those numbers have been increased to at least
9,000 poles and 15,000 cross-arms and may go higher.
Staton said getting enough replacement materials has been
a significant logistics challenge, but the company is succeeding in getting
enough poles, crossarms, transformers and other materials to complete the work
without interruption.
Excellent progress has been made in Northern Virginia, which
received more moderate damage, and the outages have been reduced from about
535,000 to less than 18,000.
"As we finish up in the less hard-hit areas, we will
begin to move those crews to those areas where the damage in many neighborhoods
is much greater," Staton said.
To prevent accidental fires from occuring when power is restored,
the company advises homeowners to leave one light on and turn off all appliances
and other electrical equipment.
In addition to working in the neighborhoods, the company also
is focusing on schools. About 80 percent of the 1,200 schools in the companys'service
territory have power. "We are working closely with school districts to
get power restored to all the schools," Staton said.
Dominion is urging those customers who have had power restored
to be good neighbors and help out those still without power. Providing hot showers,
use of washing machines and clothes dryers to those without power can help to
ease the frustrations that accompany a prolonged outage.
Dominion also called on customers to check on elderly relatives
and neighbors or others with special needs who may not have their power restored.
Dominion remains concerned about customer safety, especially
from downed power lines and improper use of generators. Company officials note
that unless installed professionally, generators should not be connected to
the whole house electrical service. Improperly installed, the electricity could
backfeed onto Dominion's power lines and injure line crews.
Report downed power lines by calling 1-888-667-3000.
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. For more
information about Dominion, including dynamic updates on power restoration,
visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.
