Contact: NOVEC Public Relations, 1-888-335-0500, customerservice@novec.com
NORTHERN VIRGINIA, Nov. 1, 2012 — Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative is working to reconnect about 300 customers to the power grid after Hurricane Sandy caused widespread power outages this week. At the height of the storm, 32,000 NOVEC customers lost power. NOVEC expects that almost every customer will have the lights back on by Thursday night.
Some of the remaining outages occurred in the last day when trees weakened by the storm fell on power lines. “An enormous tree fell yesterday in the Town of Clifton and caused another outage,” states Mike Curtis, vice president of Public Relations. “The ground is so wet that trees are continuing to fall. We’ll keep our tree crews going to remove any more trees that topple onto lines.”
Photos on NOVEC’s website show the extensive damage Sandy did to the Co-op’s system from Clarke County through Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford and Fauquier counties.
Curtis says the biggest challenge for NOVEC this week has been scores of broken utility poles: “It takes four to six hours for a six-man crew to replace just one pole, and we’ve had many to replace. Transporting new 40- to 65-foot-long poles on our utility trucks takes extra care and time.”
Curtis says, “We appreciate our customers’ patience this week. We know how anxious they are when the power is out and they are cold and in the dark. No one likes power outages.”
