The Long, Dark Wait

'Damage is simply catastrophic,' Dominion Virginia Power says

Sep 25, 2003
BY PETER BACQUE AND A.J. HOSTETLER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS

Virginians weary of scavenging for ice, food and gas since Hurricane Isabel struck a week ago should prepare for more of the same.

Roughly 480,000 electric customers were still in the dark at sunset.

Virginia's major utility expressed regret but once again would not say an end date is in sight.

"We're apologizing for the inconvenience," said Irene Cimino of Dominion Virginia Power. "We need to remember we're all in this together."

The utility found that it had far more work than had been estimated - about 9,000 broken utility poles, not 2,311 as originally thought, and 15,000 pole cross-arms, more than triple earlier estimates. Wires were on the ground along 418 miles of Virginia Power's system.

"The damage is simply catastrophic," said Cimino.

Rumors of power being out until mid-October are untrue, utility officials said, but the standard methods power companies use for estimating how long it will take to turn the lights back on no longer apply.

Isabel's ravages, stretching from North Carolina to Northern Virginia and from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, are now estimated at $625 million, including $174 million in damages to the public sector.

"I fully expect that to increase substantially," said Michael M. Cline, state coordinator of emergency management. "A large number of localities haven't even begun assessment."

The fatality toll blamed on Isabel rose to 26 yesterday with the death of a 12-year-old Virginia Beach boy killed in a house fire started by a candle.

The state's top firefighter, Adam K. Thiel, head of the Department of Fire Programs, reminded the public not to burn candles during such storm emergencies.

Across Virginia, six shelters remained open to house 83 people; 23 localities pleaded for drinking water and 42 for ice; and seven food kitchens provided meals. More than 571 homes were destroyed, and 6,556 sustained major damage.

But all major roadways were open. At noon yesterday, 117 minor roads remained closed from Isabel, and another 97 blocked by Tuesday's tornado-spawning storms, but the number was dropping. At least two Virginia Department of Transportation workers were injured while trying to clear debris.

Most Richmond-area schools closed for the week, although Goochland and Powhatan counties and Colonial Heights and Hopewell planned to open today.

Virginia received 80 truckloads of ice, representing only 80 percent of its request. Officials blamed the shortfall on the timing of the order, made days before the storm's scope was understood, and the limited number of refrigerated trucks on the East Coast.

Yesterday, Gov. Mark R. Warner surveyed nearly 100 homes destroyed in a Surry County neighborhood and called the damage some of the worst he has seen.

"I've seen some pretty tough neighborhoods in the past week," he said.

Virginia's stiff upper lip was curling into a snarl as residents who lost power during last Thursday's deadly hurricane or Tuesday's twisters vented their anger at state officials.

"We're getting something on the order of a hundred phone calls a day from consumers," said Bill Stephens, the State Corporation Commission's energy-regulation director, whose own power did not come back on until 11 p.m. Tuesday. "And understandably they're upset."

The SCC, he said, is "communicating that with the utilities."

In the face of widespread frustrations, Virginia Power sought to soothe tempers and head off criticism.

Some Richmond-area residents received automated phone calls assuring them the utility is working to restore power in their neighborhoods and asking residents to ensure that their outages had been reported.

Utility crews from Pennsylvania, Michigan and Quebec pitched in, swelling Virginia Power's work force to 11,600.

Without electricity, plenty of people were firing up their home generators, worsening gasoline shortages in some areas.

To help ease the shortages, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has authorized the sale through Sept. 30 of non-reformulated gasoline in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas. Those areas normally are required to sell the cleaner-burning reformulated gas to reduce smog.

More than 20,000 people have registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster aid, fewer than expected because people are still digging out, said David Fukutomi, FEMA's coordinator in Virginia. The agency has already approved $1.8 million in individual assistance and has more than 350 inspectors in Virginia to check out damage and help people get back on their feet.

FEMA expects to send an additional 1.2 million pounds of ice to staging sites today. So far, the agency has provided 1.4 million pounds for localities to distribute at centers in Poquoson, Newport News, Kilmarnock, Rockbridge County, the Virginia Beach Convention Center, the Middlesex County Courthouse, the Hampton Coliseum and the Virginia Distribution Center in Sandston.

Residents of Greensville County near Emporia got ice from the Perdue Farms Inc. deboning plant that shut down operations last week. The plant manager said Perdue felt it owed a debt to area residents, many of whom lost their jobs when the company announced its closing. The plant was churning out 20 tons of ice a day.

Amid the massive recovery efforts, people struggled through some of the most basic and saddest aspects of life. Funeral homes shared embalming tasks to prevent contamination, infection or decay of remains. Some funeral homes delayed ceremonies because of the power outage, loss of phone service or difficulty in digging graves amid the flooding.

The weather continued to threaten. Flood warnings were in effect along portions of the Appomattox, Blackwater, Dan, Rappahannock, James, the lower Roanoke and Nottoway rivers. Rain predicted for parts of Virginia tonight should not add much to the water levels.

State environmental officials said flooding can pollute waterways with untreated sewage and debris, making them unsafe for use.

In Franklin, where flooding destroyed more than 200 businesses after Hurricane Floyd, residents were thankful that Isabel left the state so quickly and dropped less rain than in 1999.

Much of the Franklin "was like a war zone" because of downed trees, but the river did not cause a problem this time, said Gerry Patnesky, owner of the Alphabet Soup gift shop downtown.

Health officials yesterday warned of one of the side effects of the flooding - more mosquitoes.

Homeowners making outdoor repairs should protect themselves against West Nile virus by wearing long, loose, light-colored clothing; using insect repellent with DEET; eliminating standing water; cleaning out debris from gutters and downspouts; and repairing window and door screens.

Mosquitoes, however, won't be around too much longer. Much cooler, drier air from Canada will move into Virginia next week, said meteorologist Mike Rusnak of the National Weather Service's Wakefield station. Nighttime temperatures will drop into the upper 40s and lower 50s in central Virginia.

"Fall will be in the air next week," he said.

Contact Peter Bacque at (804) 649-6813 or pbacque@timesdispatch.com

Contact A.J. Hostetler at (804) 649-6355 or ahostetler@timesdispatch.com

Times-Dispatch staff writers Greg Edwards, Osita Iroegbu, Tammie Smith, Rex Springston and Pamela Stallsmith, and the Associated Press, contributed to this report.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031771208578