Danville Utilities have made progress today in restoring electricity to scattered outages affecting one and two customers. Crews have now restored 97 percent of the 13,000 services that were interrupted at the height of Friday night’s wind storm.
As of 2 p.m. Sunday, approximately 400 customers were without service.
Crews are working to restore service to major lines in the West Main and Mount Vernon area, with hopes to restore power this afternoon to another 150 customers. Others in this area, however, may remain without power longer due to additional damage.
A crew also is replacing a broken pole on Golf Club Road. Service is expected to be restored this afternoon to those 60 customers without power.
The remaining locations have customer counts ranging from one to six. Ken Ashworth, director of the power and light division of Danville Utilities, said that while crews will continue to work around the clock, not all service will be restored by today.
“We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding as we complete our work,” Ashworth said.
When widespread outages occur, Ashworth said crews are first assigned to repair major lines that result in the heaviest concentration of outages. As lines are repaired and crews become available, they are assigned to areas with fewer outages.
Ashworth said he has sought assistance from contract crews from other communities to assist in restoring power, but no crews have been available.
“We tried to get additional crews, but they are all taken,” Ashworth said. “The other communities are dealing with the same problems with outages from the storm as we are.”
Customers should note that during the power restoration effort there are times when crews must temporarily shut off power to an area to make repairs.
In addition, as Danville Utilities works through the restoration process, some areas may have less damage than others. Once major lines serving a neighborhood are repaired, power may be on at some houses and off at others because of additional damage to lines and equipment serving those homes.
UPDATE AT 7 AM SUNDAY:
Danville Utilities crews worked through the night, and they were able to restore electrical service to nearly half of the customers who had remained without power Saturday night.
As of 7 a.m. Sunday, Danville Utilities reports that 478 of its electric customers remain without power as a result of Friday night’s wind storm. Service to Windsor Heights and U.S. 58 East was restored.
Crews continue to work the West Main Street and Mount Vernon Avenue area, Golf Club Road and the Cascade area.
UPDATE AT 8 P.M. SATURDAY:
As of 8 p.m. Saturday, Danville Utilities reports that approximately 800 of its electric customers remain without power as a result of Friday night’s wind storm. Crews will continue to work around the clock until all power is restored.
While efforts are being made to restore power as quickly as possible, some areas will not be restored until Sunday. Those areas include:
• West Main Street and Mount Vernon Avenue
• Golf Club Road
• Cascade
• Kentuck
• Scattered sections around Westover Drive
Numerous single outages are scattered throughout the service territory.
UPDATE at 4 P.M. SATURDAY:
As of 4 p.m. Saturday, Danville Utilities reports that approximately 1,000 of its electric customers remain without power. New reports, however, still are being received.
Single outages are scattered throughout the service territory, but the areas with the largest concentration of outages are U.S. 58 East (mostly in Halifax County, which includes Virginia International Raceway), Windsor Heights, Golf Club Road and Route 360.
The outages in these locations are the result of broken utility poles.
ORIGINAL NEWS RELEASE:
Powerful windstorms that blew through the Danville area last night at approximately 10 p.m. left nearly 10,000 customer locations without electric power. Crews worked through the night and will continue to work on a 24-hour schedule until service is restored to all customers. As of noon today, approximately 1,100 customer locations remained without electricity. Outages were widespread throughout Danville Utilities’ 500-square mile service territory.
Public Works crews also worked through the night clearing downed trees and limbs from city streets. Over 50 trees, some very large, were reported down due to high winds. Affected streets were closed to traffic in several locations, including West Main Street, while trees were cut up and removed.
“Our employees are working as hard as they can to get power restored and fallen trees removed from public streets as quickly as possible,” said City Manager Joe King. “I’m very proud of the quick response and dedicated work of public safety, utilities, and public works employees in responding to this storm. The only problem we’ve encountered has been with our outage telephone call-in system. Some customers simply couldn’t get through to register their outages. I apologize for that.” King said that the power outage call-in system will soon be replaced by a more reliable system.
As of noon today, the City had received no requests for cooling center accommodations. Joe King said that the City encourages family, friends, and churches to help those in need of a place to cool down. However, with hot temperatures and no electric power available in some homes for cooling, the City is also making arrangements to establish cooling centers for those who need them. Joe King indicated that the Fire Department will issue a media release if centers are activated.
Property owners experiencing damage to buildings have been encouraged to contact their insurance companies. Claims involving damage by city-owned trees should be reported to the City Attorney’s at telephone number 799-5122.