HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Countless distractions back at home didn’t slow down Dustin Sadler and his crew from getting the lights back on in Henrico’s West End.
“These guys are in here restoring service to these customers. We do it. We do it proudly and we do it well. But our families are at home as well without lights,” said Sadler, a construction foreman. “You have to like wanting to get up in the middle of the night, leaving your family, coming here and working in the mud and snow all day.”
Two giant cedar trees toppled a pole and a conductor which knocked out power to more than 60 homes on Midvale Road.
“We’ve had sunlight for eight hours and it’s still stuck on that cedar tree weighing it down,” Sadler explained. “Great for building snowmen. Not so great for powerless and tree limbs.”
Systemwide, more than 250,000 Dominion Energy customers were without power following the year’s first major snowstorm.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 6,000 customers in Metro Richmond were in the dark, which is down from 15,000 customers on Monday.
In the Northern Neck, about 3,800 members of the Northern Neck Electric Cooperative were still without power.
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative reported widespread damage in their service area with more than 72,000 of their 170,000 thousand members without electricity.
Louisa County was one of the hardest-hit localities with just four percent of members with power thanks to giant trees crashing on poles. The county opened a warming shelter at the Holly Grove Fire Department at 143 Factory Mill Road in Bumpass.
Susie Gorman raced time on Tuesday as she evacuated her rescue dogs out of her cold Goochland County home and into a veterinarian’s office.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be today, tomorrow or a week from now when I’ll get power back,” Gorman told CBS 6. “If it continues to drop, I obviously can’t keep the animals safe. They’ll freeze to death if I can’t keep them warm.”
Crossroads West Veterinary Center on Three Chopt Road allowed Gorman to house her dogs from her For the Love of Poodles Rescue until her power is restored.
“I’m going to make sure my animals are safe before anything else happens,” Gorman stated.
Sadler reassured customers that the power companies and their crews will not stop working until the job is done. Crews will work 16-hour shifts.
“You get home take a shower, sleep for six hours. You’re coming back in the next day every day until the lights come back on,” he said.
