Contact: Priscilla Knight, 703-392-1580, pknight@novec.com
MANASSAS, VA—Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative crews have been working around the clock since Sunday night, April 15, 2007, to restore power to more than 7,200 customers in Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William and Stafford Counties. As of noon on April 18, 2007, all but 11 customers have had power restored.
Outages were caused by an unusual April "nor'easter" storm that pounded the region with record amounts of rain and high-velocity wind.
NOVEC requested extra crews on
On Monday, crews had to keep up with 15- to 60-mph winds that ripped trees out of the ground and tore off branches.Most outages were caused by trees falling on electric lines. "We would get one outage repaired and customers' power back online, and then another tree or tree branch would fall and knock out the line again.This was happening throughout the region," said Allen Barbee, NOVEC's vice president of electric system operations."I've got to give it to these crews.They have worked day and night through cold, drenching rain and powerful winds to restore power.It's extra windy on top of a utility pole, where our guys have to go.Don't forget how dangerous it is to work with electricity.These linemen are heroes to a lot of people," Barbee added.
Barbee stressed that no one should touch a downed power line, because it could be a live wire and therefore cause electrocution."If you see a downed line, call NOVEC right away, or call 911," said Barbee.
NOVEC's outage map on its Web site's home page provides up-to-the-minute outage status reports, including anticipated restoration times.Customers who have access to an online computer should go to www.novec.com and click on the map for information.
To report a power outage, customers should call on a land-line home phone (if they have one) to NOVEC's interactive voice response system at 703-335-0500 or toll-free 1-888-335-0500. They should follow the prompts.
