According to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Friday’s damaging storm is called a “derecho,” and produces tornado-like damage in its wake.
We really got clobbered. As of this morning I have no cell phone services, no TV and no house phone. If we had an emergency we would have to go lie down in the middle of the road.
I need someone to call in my outages. If you read this, please email me so I can give you the phone numbers. (leave me a message to go read my email.)
Meanwhile, please let us know what outages you have. Any tree limbs? What’s the news from your neighborhood? Cargo, what’s Richmond doing?
folks on facebook are saying verizon cell phone is out in Lakeridge and in Haymarket also.
I guess the “Can you hear me know” is a loud, resounding NO.
Check your email.
I answered. thank you very much. All well out your mid county way?
If you dont hear back from me let me know here. Tha tmeans something else isn’t working.
What would cell phones have to do with land line service? Surely it is just coincidental.
Why wouldn’t Verizon attempt to keep people informed on their website?
Does anyone else resent the advertizements on you verizon “home page?” I give them huge amounts of money a month. I don’t expect to see an ad anywhere.
I don’t know the status of Richmond yet. Just got up. We lost power…we always do…but then it came back. Weird.
Another branch down. That’s it for us so far.
Seems like 155000 had power fail. Lots of storm damage.
I have electricty and internet, thank goodness.
Maybe a cell tower was hit.
I remember a county employee telling me that competition to Comcast in the form of Verizon’s services might mean better service – or not.
Verizon sure isn’t the winner today. My next door neighbor has comcast and a working land line.
I have no cell or land line in the City. And I lost a tree, but thankfully had no car or house damage. Went to the Farmers Market just now and saw that the top of the letter “E” in the LOVE sculpture is broken off.
That should make a local blogger we know very happy. He needs some cheering up it sounds like.
I would guess if power is out in an area that contains a cell tower, chances are the cell tower is out. I can call neighbors on landline but can’t get out an further. Have not tried cell phone. Any idea when things will start to improve?
IIRC Slow would be able to answer some of those questions because of the work he does but my guess is he’s currently engaged in the DRP (Disaster Recovery Plan) and COOP (Continuity of Operations).
My uneducated guess would be that a few multiplexers were damaged either by the wind or by the power outage. Most cell phone companies have emergency towers they can put in place to get first responders up and running with cell phone traffic and those operate on generators.
The switches/multiplexers (central offices in neighborhoods) all require local power so until power is restored or deisel generators are brough in place and put on-line……
Either way it’ll all be corrected soon enough. As long as you have electricity and a gun – you’ll be OK. 🙂
@marin, electricity is the most important…if it feeds the ac.
He is on facebook. I just dont know what he is talking about.
Keep interpretting. I am clueless here. I think electricity is magic.
@marin
I left him a message. Will you go make friends with him? He has that gross dead deer picture up. I want to smack him.
Comcast is crawling but working. The landline is okay but our cell phones aren’t working.
I’m glad we just had a short burst of heavy wind and then a downpour before the lightning moved in. Living among 100′ tall trees in a windstorm isn’t fun.
Yea, I know that feeling. Around here, they can get you several yards away.
Thanks for the update and thanks for putting in my rescue call.
@Moon-howler
I’m not his friend on FB. So can’t interpret. 🙂 I’m just speculating based on my IT background and work with the VADF.
I am his friend but not sure he is speaking to me during his self deportation. He did it, not me. Not the first time. It works out well. He knows when he needs to do it and just …takes care of things. I actually miss him. sssshhhhh don’t tell him.
Elena must not have electricity or maybe internet. I cant contact her either.
3 hours ago from VDEM
Updated power outage #’s in Virginia. More than a million people are without power. Please report power outages to 1-866-366-4357
I have 5 100 foot pines in the back and a huge oak over my house in the front.
Makes for interesting watching during these storms.
Do those trees give you religion during a storm?
I’ll never plant another Bradford Pear–way too weak.
Beautiful trees but I agree. I will just drive to Ravenscrest to look at them.
My TV just came back. Nothing else.
State of Emergency declared.
VDEM has upgraded from Routine Operations to Increased Readiness.
In Prince William County and in parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties, 911 emergency phone systems are out. In Prince William County, residents are asked to call (703)792-6500 in the event of an emergency.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management says there are 911 issues throughout the state. Below are some other numbers to call if you are having an emergency and can’t get through on 911.
•Fairfax County Police: 703-691-2131
•Fairfax County Fire: 703-246-2126
•Arlington County Police: 703-558-2222
•Arlington County Fire: 703-228-3362
•Alexandria Police: 703-746-1870
•Alexandria Fire: 703-746-5200
•Prince William Police & Fire: 703-792-6500
•Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office: 703-777-1021
•Loudoun County Dept of Fire, Rescue & Emergency Management: 703-777-0637
Thanks Marin
VDEM upgraded to Response Operations
The VEOC has significant additional or fully augmented staffing on a 24-hr schedule. The Governor has issued or is considering issuance of a State of Emergency declaration and/or there may be a federal declaration (Emergency or Major Disaster) in effect. Hurricane Readiness Condition 3 begins at this level. The Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Operations Plan is being utilized. A declaration of Alert, Site Area Emergency, or General Emergency at a nuclear facility or a response to a probable terrorist event with major consequences would be included in this level. In-state activities under the umbrella of the EMAC or Statewide Mutual Aid programs would be occurring at this level.
Sorry, folks, we are up in Westminster, MD today. Wife is at a bridal shower and her parents and I are on 2 boys duty. We’re outmatched. My parents lost power, but we didn’t, so my parents are at our house while we’re up in Maryland. I saw some seriously big trees down in Montgomery Co, this morning while we were driving up. We were listening to WTOP on the way up this morning….heard the power situation was rough. I’ll be interested in hearing what was behind the 911 outage today. I remember the recent one pretty well. 911 is going through some real transition pains.
Hi Slow. Funny how we called out the cavalry looking for you. I think its neat how that works. Will you please friend marin on facebook?
Verizon 3G is back online, fairly quickly since there’s a lot of competition in that space.
The giant black pool of suck that is Dominion Power, not so much.
Is 4G regressive? Mine didnt come back until around 3 or 4. Still no land line.
There are still people without power in my neighborhood, within some blocks of here. Its odd that I didn’t lose a tree.
A huge oak a the end of the block went over, snapped a power pole and is resting on the power line. The line is still attached, stretched, and is now about 10 feet overhead, crossing my street. There’s yellow tape dangling from the bit that’s about 7-8 feet over the right hand lane, next to the tree.
Yay. That its not being worked on tells me that the power guys are swamped.
Here’s a link to Dominion’s power outage map. It has also a page with the data and as of about 3:00 401,344 of 831,912 Dominion customers in Northern Virginia still don’t have power. Earlier today more than half of the customers don’t have power.
https://www.dom.com/storm-center/northva.jsp
We were lucky. Still have power at home and the office, but Comcast is out.
My neighbor has comcast and she has her phone. We didn’t ask her about TV. My brother is in south riding and his verizon is down.
I have NOVEC and they are totally reliable. I was told they were one of the top electric companies in the nation for not being out/down.
Yeah, I had NOVEC when I lived in Gainesville and the only outage I ever suffered was during a hurricane.
Dominion Virginia is pathetic.
I didnt even have outage during Isabel. Every once in a while a squirrel gets in there or a raccoon but they get it back up in like 10 minutes, if that long.
There just aren’t long outages. I hope I haven’t jinked myself.
Yeah, NOVEC deserves a thumbs up. We usually have power when those across the river on Dominion are in the dark. I got up too late to notice if it was dark on that side this morning. Guess I’ll wait until nightfall and see.
More windstorms coming. Gusts just went through, but its calmed down. (knock wood)
Wunderground shows that storm moving SE of Richmond. I hope they’re right.
@Moon-howler
Absolument!
I live in the Dunn Loring/Merrifield megalopolis. Total catastrophe. I got a generator hooked up fast enough to save my beer and a fair amount of my wife’s food. Lots of trees down(some on top of neighbors’ cars).
Glad you and the beer are safe, Scout!
I have absolutely no idea of the story behind this. Actually found it on a online comic site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVEPvXBEOSE&feature=colike
This the the weather forecast that you need.
Plenty of limbs and a number of trees down in the City of Manassas,
but it appears nobody lost power. (We will get an official report
next week.) Being able to maintain electricity was due to
having many lines underground, proactive tree trimming and
good luck this time around.
Worked several years at Home Depot and sold dozens of generators
– please, please read the directions before you start one. Not
doing so can kill you.
Thanks for that update Steve. I think thre might have been an outage over on Fort Drive, according to Cindy B. That’s still a good batting average though.
My friend who lives near the Nutley Metro Station is without electicty and has been told several days to a week before service is restored.
http://manassas.patch.com/articles/city-a-refuge-for-many
Visit Manassas City and join the cool crowd!
We live in Gainesville and power went out Friday night and restored on Saturday sometime before 1. We left town for NY at 9:30 and it was still out. Based on the reports I’ve been reading about the DC area, we were damn lucky to get it restored in less than 24 hours. NOVEC!