Lights are turning back on across the area just in time for Christmas Day, but temps stay frigid
Slowly but surely, the lights are coming back on across the Tri-City area, and by 11 p.m. Christmas Eve, just about everyone should be back on the power grid.
According to Dominion Energy's interactive outage map, 137 of the region's 52,138 Dominion households and businesses were still in the dark as of 3 p.m. Saturday. That includes practically all of Dinwiddie County and Colonial Heights — one Dominion customer in each locality had yet to be turned back on.
Friday's Arctic wind blasts knocked out electricity to roughly 7,600 households and businesses across central Virginia by Friday night, Dominion estimated. Statewide, almost 224,000 customers were affected, and by Saturday morning, 93% of them had been restored.
"Our crews will continue working around the clock today. Nearly all customers affected by Friday's windstorm will have their power restored by 11:00 p.m. this evening," Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton said in an email. "If a restoration project extends past 11:00 p.m. Saturday, we will proactively contact those customers."
In Petersburg, 108 Dominion customers remained disconnected as of 3 p.m. Saturday, Dominion said. In Prince George County and Hopewell, 13 and 14 customers respectively were still without power.
The National Weather Service office in Wakefield reported early morning wind-chills Saturday well below zero, including Hopewell at -12 degrees around 6:45 a.m. and Petersburg at -8 degrees less than an hour later.
Scramble to get warmth
The bone-chilling conditions prompted several Good Samaritans in Petersburg to scramble to establish pop-up warming shelters since none had been set up in the city prior to the cold snap.
In Ward 1, incoming Councilor Marlow Jones wrote on his Facebook page that Vybez Studios on North Crater Road opened its doors from 10 p.m Friday to 10 a.m. Saturday for those who had no other options to escape the cold.
"One of the business owners have stepped up for me, for us and for those in need of warmth in this cold weather!" Jones wrote. "You heard the call and you Answered it!!"
Jones said he was challenging other businesses across the city to step up and open their doors.
Pastor Belinda Baugh said her church, New Divine Worship Center, put several people up in hotels for the night to escape the cold.
With the low temperatures Saturday night expected to drop well into the teens, warm places to sleep still were going to be needed. The high temperature on Christmas Day will struggle to get out of the mid-30s, but it will be a bit warmer than Saturday's highs in the mid- to upper-20s.
By the end of the week, however, NWS Wakefield predicted daytime highs to be back into the low 60s.
Elsewhere across the country, an Arctic-like weather system hammered most of the U.S. over the weekend. At least 17 deaths have been attributed to the system.
USA TODAY reported that only a few regions in the United States — parts of California, Oregon, Arizona and Florida — were not expected to have wind chills below freezing on or before Christmas Day.
More:Live winter storm updates: 17 deaths reported; widespread power outages amid severe weather
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Utility says nearly all electricity will be restored by Christmas Eve
