Fredericksburg, Va. - As of Saturday morning, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) crews, contractors and mutual-aid workers had restored power to about 83,000 members owners who lost service in Winter Storm Frida. About 15,000 members remain without power.
REC still estimates the majority of outages should be restored by Sunday night but scattered, smaller outages will continue into next week.
At this time, crews have discovered more than 400 broken poles, and they continue to find more each day. Before the storm, REC had plenty of poles to respond to an event of this magnitude, and the Cooperative still has more than enough poles and other equipment to make needed repairs. Additional equipment continues to arrive daily.
“Most larger outage events will clear up over the weekend,” said Casey Hollins, Managing Director – Communications and Public Relations. “Because REC has hundreds of mutual-aid crews helping in the field, they will also now be able to tackle smaller outages throughout REC’s communities. With this storm, the electric grid was shaken to its foundation. To those still without power, please know that more than 1,000 field workers are working as quickly and safely as they can to get your lights and your heat back on for you.”
SAFETY REMINDER
Never attempt to make repairs to power lines or related equipment.
DO NOT DO THIS.
Electricity is extremely dangerous, and we urge you to treat any downed lines or related equipment as if it is energized – or could be energized. This includes touching power lines or anything that could be in contact with power lines; attempting to use any other objects to touch power lines or related equipment; and cutting trees or moving other objects in contact with power lines.
Severe injury and even death are both possible.
“We know this outage is long and frustrating, but it is not worth losing a life over,” Hollins said.
