Dominion Energy works to restore power, brings people from out-of-state

HENRICO, VA (WWBT) - Dominion Energy has more than doubled their workforce in order to restore power to almost 100,000 people without power due to Tropical Storm Michael.

According to Alison Kaufmann, a spokesperson for Dominion Energy, the company began preparing days in advance. On Thursday, they had around 6,000 workers ready to react as people began losing power.

“We were prepared and ready for the storm,” Kaufmann said. “We have augmented our staff if not two or three-fold.”

Dominion hired contractors and mutual aid from other states to prepare for their response.

“We had crews, both our own crews went on storm duty, we had contractors as well as our mutual aid who came as far as Maine and Indiana,” Kaufmann said.

Friday, Kaufmann said was more about damage assessment to ensure workers were prepared as they began to work to fix the issues.

“Here in central Virginia, we are working today on damage assessment, weighing out the extent of damage, that helps us inform the times of restoration,” Kaufmann said.

So far, more than 200,000 customers have been restored but Dominion expects most customers to be restored by the end of the day, Monday. Dominion is working to fix damage that includes broken poles and cross-arms, downed wires, fallen trees and blocked roads.

If you are without power, you are encouraged to call 1-866-dom-help, that’s 1-866-366-4357.

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