NOVEC reports it’s restoring electricity to 83 of its customers this afternoon after nearly two feet of snow has already fallen across the region.
Twenty five outages were reported in Prince William County and 57 in Stafford County.
“The dry snow is a blessing,” explains Larry Shaffer, NOVEC vice president of Electric Systems Operations. “Wind is blowing snow off trees and branches, keeping most of them intact and off power lines. If we were getting wet snow and ice, we’d be dealing with a lot more outages.”
NOVEC crews, with assistance from Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania crews, have restored power quickly when outages have occurred.
Dominion Virginia Power reports 90 customers without power in Prince William County as of 3:30 p.m.
NOVEC provided some tips on what to do if power goes out:
Customers without power should report outages to NOVEC at 703-335-0500 or 1-888-335-0500 and follow the prompts from the Interactive Voice Recognition system. The IVR system will report the outage to NOVEC’s System Operations Center immediately. Customers can also use NOVEC’s free app available at www.novec.com/apps or send a text message. To sign up for text messaging, customers can text the keyword NOVECOUT to 85700 or log onto their accounts on www.novec.com. They can learn more about what to do when the power goes out on NOVEC’s website.
NOVEC warns customers to:
· Only use electric generators that have been installed by licensed electricians outdoors for the safety of homeowners and NOVEC line technicians.
· Stay away from downed power lines and assume they are energized. Call NOVEC and 911 immediately.
· Use flashlights or lanterns instead of candles. If candles must be used, keep them away from children, pets, furnishings, and monitor them at all times.
