RICHMOND, Va. - Dominion Virginia Power has restored service
to more than 1.5 million customers affected by Hurricane Isabel. The company
began moving crews Friday from areas where recovery work is almost complete
to more severely damaged areas.
"We've already restored power to more customers than
in any previous storm or natural disaster," said Jimmy D. Staton, senior
vice president-Operations. "With more than 83 percent of our customers
now back, we're providing additional manpower from Northern Virginia to Central
Virginia, Hampton Roads and North Carolina."
At 4 p.m. Friday, the total number of outages in the 30,000-square
mile area was down from 1.8 million to about 289,000. The 1.5 million customers
already restored surpasses any other restoration effort in Dominion's history.
Hurricane Fran in 1996 cut power to 1.1 million customers. Additionally:
Service to 53 schools was restored Thursday. The remaining
17 schools are slated to get their power back this weekend.
99 percent of restoration is complete in Northern Virginia.
While some crews finish the Northern Virginia work, other crews were being
moved Friday to more severely damaged areas in Central Virginia and Hampton
Roads.
90 percent of customers will be restored by late Sunday
night.
Virtually all customers should be restored by Friday, Oct.
3.
All customers still out should be able to get individual
estimated restoration dates by Saturday afternoon. This information will be
made available through the company Customer Service Centers at 1-888-667-3000.
Dominion urges customers to stay away from downed power lines
and to check on elderly relatives and neighbors or others with special needs
that may not have their power restored.
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.
