As area cleans up from wind storm, some still without power

March 4, 2018 Community News
A downed pine tree on Telegraph Road.
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The sounds of chainsaws and wood chippers could be heard in neighborhoods around the area Sunday, as the cleanup continued following Friday’s and Saturday’s wind storms. 

After thousands of Richmond Highway area residents lost power Friday, only a few hundred Dominion Energy customers in the area remained without power on Sunday evening, according to Dominion’s outage map. The biggest concentration of outages were in the Belle View area and near Mount Vernon. 

Dominion Energy map

Outages as of 8 p.m. on Sunday evening.

More than 10,000 customers in Fairfax County remained without power Sunday evening, including seven public schools. No Richmond Highway-area schools were without power, however, and Fairfax County Public Schools said schools all schools with power would be opening on time Monday.

Dominion says the windstorm ranks only behind three hurricanes and the 2012 “Super Derecho” in terms of damage caused by a storm. Many residents were without power for well over two days, including people living in the Fort Lyon Heights neighborhood near the Huntington Metro.

Fairfax Fire and Rescue said that between 8 p.m. Thursday to 8 p.m. Friday, its personnel responded to over 1,100 calls for help, including 255 calls for downed powerlines and 56 calls for trees hitting homes. Many downed trees were still blocking roads on Sunday afternoon, but all major roadways were clear.

A number of businesses still lacked electricity Sunday afternoon, including the Richmond Highway Krispy Kreme and the nearby Applebees, Wingstop and Jerry’s Subs. 

One of the many trees lost in the storm was historically significant. A Canadian Hemlock at Mount Vernon went down, and a spokesman for the estate said it dated back to 1791.