After the break is an email string from Ann Mallek with information from Dominion Power about the possible power outages and such. Just a reminder, that if Crozet sees storm impact, I’ll try my very best to keep the RealCrozetVA twitter feed as updated as possible. Facebook will be secondary (the app kills my iPhone battery), but I’ll try to keep that updated as well/
Here is an update from dominion on their preparations. As long as you have power, please refer to the emergency news reports on the county website at www.albemarle.org. After power outages begin here our press efforts will turn to the local radio stations. Please check on your neighbors and work together to help the community get through this next weather event.
Thank you all. Please call me if I can help.
Ann Mallek
From Dominion:
In our continuing effort to keep you informed, I wanted to share with you some additional information about Dominion’s planned response to Hurricane Sandy. Attached is a press release with further details.
As I have communicated to you previously, we expect significant impacts from this storm over a protracted period of time as the storm lingers over our service territory. Safety of the public and our crews is our top priority. As always, we will work to restore service even during the storm, but the nature of this event may mean we will not be able to begin most of our response in the field until the storm itself has passed.
It is important for customers to remember that we do not know if their power is out unless they call us to report the outage. When an outage occurs, customers should call 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-
Once the restoration begins, we will follow the same general process we use in all large-scale restoration efforts. In addition to focusing on public safety issues, we will initially target restoration of our transmission lines, the largest power lines that carry the power across our system to several substations. This effort will restore the most possible customers in the shortest time and it is critical to allowing us to focus on restoring the rest of our system. Once our transmission system is restored, we focus on our substations, which serve multiple circuits, whether whole communities or major parts of larger communities. Once these two steps in restoring the critical building blocks of our system are completed, we can begin restoring critical facilities such as 911 centers, water treatment facilities, public safety facilities, and certain health care facilities. Given the ongoing election, we will also be focusing at this stage on restoring sites for in-person, absentee voting.
After critical facilities, we then prioritize the main circuits, which bring power from substations to individual communities or industries. Only after completing these four steps (transmission lines, substations, critical facilities, and main circuits) do we begin focusing on individual neighborhoods. That said, many residential customers will find that their power is restored as a result of the work on transmission lines, substations, critical facilities, and main lines. However, it is important that all of our customers prepare for the potential for prolonged loss of power.
For more information, here is a link to the answers to frequently asked questions about power restoration on our web site (dom.com): https://www.dom.
All of us at Dominion understand the frustration and inconvenience that power outages bring our customers. We will be working around the clock until all of our customers are restored. We urge you and all our customers to keep safety as your paramount concern during both the storm itself and the ensuring restoration. For example, please treat all downed power lines and anything touching them as if they are energized.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me or any member of our government affairs team.
Thanks,
-Scott
Since writing earlier today, there have been slight modifications to our storm prediction, but the anticipated impact to our customers has not changed. Simply put, this is a very dangerous storm and we anticipate Hurricane Sandy causing significant state-wide damage to our electric distribution system. Accordingly, we are running radio ads and using other communication channels to urge our customers to prepare for the storm and to take steps to remain safe afterwards. I would like to briefly summarize these steps for you and urge you to share this information with your constituents.
Before the storm, assemble critical emergency supplies such as water, flashlights, radios, extra batteries, medicine, cash, and other critical items in an emergency kit. Have a plan for how you and your family will remain safe during the storm itself, which may well be protracted, how you will evacuate if necessary, and where you will go. It is further a good idea to fuel your automobiles.
If power is interrupted, call Dominion at 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357) to report the outage. If you prefer, you may also report the outage through our web site (www.dom.com). Additionally, if your smart phone is registered as your primary phone number for your account, you may report an outage on that device (also www.dom.com). To assist you in updating your primary phone number in our records, we have established a dedicated line at 1-800-222-0401 that will allow you to register your preferred phone number.
After the storm, please keep safety as your top priority.
· Treat all fallen wires and anything touching them as though they are energized and stay away from them. Report the fallen wire to Dominion at 1-866-DOM-HELP.
· Follow safe operating procedures for generators. For example, never operate a generator inside your home or in any enclosed space (such as a garage). Do not hook them directly into your electrical system; instead plug directly into the generator with properly-sized extension cords.
I need to emphasize that this may well be a very significant outage with a protracted time required to restore power. With this in mind, we have already identified more than 2,000 additional personnel to assist our Dominion team in the restoration effort. As always, our team will be working around the clock until power is restored to every customer.
