Parts of Chesterfield still in the dark following winter storm

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – Cleanup efforts continue across Central Virginia following Tuesday's winter storm but, for many, the disruption persists, especially due to widespread power outages.

In the Inglewood area of Bon Air, Dominion Energy crews were on-site Thursday, working to restore service. But it was just one neighborhood of many in the region still facing outages.

Dominion Energy spokesperson Craig Carper said crews have been working around the clock to address the impact of the storm.

"Throughout the last 48 hours, we've seen over 200,000 customers impacted," Carper explained.

He added that the company is "trending in the right direction" and anticipates having the "vast majority of customers affected by this storm restored by 11 p.m."

On Thursday, 8News visited the Scottingham neighborhood in North Chesterfield, where power had recently been restored.

"Yesterday, when we were driving back from bar trivia at night, we noticed in the front of the neighborhood -- it was super dark. So we were like, 'Something is off.' You know?" said resident Mary Doerr. "And then on my walk today, I noticed a lot of generators going."

Neighbors in Scottingham told 8News that power outages are a frequent occurrence, a concern amplified by the number of elderly residents in the area. Because the neighborhood is on a smaller grid, they often experience longer restoration times.

Carper acknowledged the ongoing challenges, stating, "We're making steady progress."

He also discussed Dominion Energy's efforts to prevent future widespread outages.

"We're looking at the most outage-prone neighborhoods, the most outage-prone lines, and we're undergrounding them to protect them from falling limbs and make them more resilient and less prone to outages," he said.

Dominion Energy's strategic undergrounding project has been ongoing for 10 years but Carper says it faces challenges due to its labor-intensive nature and high cost.

Crews will continue working throughout Thursday night to restore power to remaining customers.

Dominion Energy's outage map can be found here.