Dominion Energy prepares for storm after thousands lost power last week

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- After two winter storms last week left thousands without power, Dominion Energy is gearing up for another anticipated snowfall this week.

"Storm preparation is a year-round job," said Dominion Energy spokesperson Craig Carper. "It's 365 days a year. We want it to be that way so, when severe weather hits, all we've got to do is gas up the trucks, make sure the equipment's loaded and go."

Carper said that 236,000 were affected by power outages the week of Feb. 10, with many of them living in the Greater Richmond region.

"We were without power for 36 hours," said Stephen Palmore, one of many Richmonders who lost power last week.

Palmore lives on the West side of the city. He said his entire street lost power after the snow.

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"I lost a little bit of food during the outage,” Palmore said. "We've got elderly people in this neighborhood [and] they cannot get out and about for resources like I can."

He said crews showed up Tuesday, the day after the initial outage. But what are crews doing once they arrive?

Carper said crews have to assess the damages before they start repairing, so any details you can provide during a report are helpful to speed the process up. In some cases, crews need to remove fallen trees or replace utility poles, which requires different trucks and additional time.

"It's different for every different call," Carper said.

According to Carper, Dominion is doing its best to predict where the most significant impacts will be, with snowfall expected Wednesday, Feb. 19 and Thursday, Feb. 20. However, he said crews are not expecting this storm's impact to be as widespread as last week's was.

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"We're looking at [a drier snow,] which is encouraging, moving in Wednesday evening into Thursday morning," he said. "So there's [a] lower potential for serious impacts with the drier snow."

As it's typically heavier snow or ice that takes down power lines, a drier snow could mean less of an impact on power, according to Carper.

As weather forecasts can change, he said it's important to still be prepared and to think about what your household may need if power does go out for a prolonged period of time.

"We always recommend nonperishable food, cases of bottled water, batteries, flashlights, candles -- those kinds of things," Carper said. "Make sure [to] go ahead and refill all your prescriptions ... anything you need, any medicines you rely on, [and] charge all your devices."

You can report an outage online, by entering it in the Dominion Energy app or by calling 1-866-366-4357. You can also track restoration times on the app.