City Hall Closed Today, Many Neighborhoods Without Power
By FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF
July 2, 2012
UPDATE – 2:15 pm. According to Dominion Power’s website 3,317 of Falls Church City’s 5,748 customers are without electricity, a rate of 57.7%. Other local jurisdictions: Arlington County 26.7%, Fairfax County 20.7%, Alexandria City 22.1%.
Falls Church City Hall will be closed today. Essential employees are asked to report to their supervisor. DMV Select is closed. The Library is closed.
The Cooling Center at the Community Center is open, as are summer camps, the Property Yard, and the Aurora House. Water Customer Service is open by phone (703-248-5071).
The swearing in of two new Council members and the election of the mayor and vice mayor will be held in the Council Chamber at 8 pm as scheduled. The reception has been cancelled.
Although power has been restored in some areas, much of the City remains without electricity. As of 7 am power had been restored in some parts of Greenway Downs, but all of Winter Hill was still out. Most traffic lights now appear to be functioning.
Updates from the City will be posted here as received.
By Falls Church Times Staff
July 2, 2012
Winter Hill always seems to be last. I think Dominion “forgets’ about us. They just spent thousands trying to “fix” the circuits (about the 4th time in the last 15 years) but they just can’t seem to bring themselves to do the job right and completely.
I think they just need to replace some fuse links since we’re all underground – usually if Anthony’s is up, then our feed is good.
Library is closed MONDAY, July 2
We’ll wait to determine for Tuesday until later. Stay tuned!
Looks like Virginia Forest in the Poplar-Spring area is up.
To Falls Church-area folks who were affected by the earlier boil-water advisory, I and other Councilors have a 2:03pm message from our City Manager saying that the advisory has been lifted. Manager writes in part: “We received the second round of Lab tests at 1:20. They are negative for bacteriological growth. This is good news. We just got off conference call with Va Dept of Health, Ffax County Dept of Health, Town of Vienna, and Washington Aqueduct. We are lifting the boil advisory, and will advise all media outlets.”
Our power came on this morning about 3:45 a.m. and I was awoken by our alarm and noise of water running which was actually the AIR CONDITIONER. So Friday night to Monday morning not too bad….during Isabelle it was a good 5 days and we were one of the last in the area to get our power up, when the folks nearby had their’s on. No telling how they figure all this out, but am glad to be in the 21st century again! Missed ice and batteries most…got used to the heat after a while. Glad we are all safe and sound, the “Land Hurricane” was surreal, no warning! and whoomph tree branches down and tons of branches everywhere at our house with two huge branches off two large trees. Then came the thunder and the wild lightning. Won’t forget this one!
Is there any word on the Winter Hill community gettiing power back?
Still no power in Winter Hill, as others mentioned. My neighbors and I rec’d an automated call this morning from Dominion asking whether our power was back on…it’s not. If you receive this call, definitely re-report the outage! (866-DOM-HELP).
Re barb, while I agree there was insufficient notice about these storms, I did see that Capital Weather Gang (the WashPost’s weather blog) was sending out info and alerts about an hour or 2 before the storms hit. We started securing loose items and charging up our cell phones when they posted that mass power outages were likely, based on storm damage in WV and OH.
I am also a resident of Winter Hill. At this point there is really no excuse why power has not been restored. I need to blame someone. If only we had a mayor that lived in WH who could fight for our neighborhood!!
@barb, mine came on at 3:35. My eyes popped open with the security light and the sound of….machines working!! At 4 I had my first load of wash going..those wet, dirty, nasty towels that had to sop up the water as my freezers and frig defrosted. All was lost in the power outage but…all are defrosted and clean as a whistle.
Mayor Baroukh DOES live in Winter Hill and is fighting Dominion tooth and nail over this issue.
I heard him say he was pretty unhappy with Va Power’s lack of response to our water system needs too. Infrastructure like water treatment and pumping should be a priority.
Imagine the misery if we did not have or could not use water.
Will someone please post when Winter Hill power is back on? Haven’t been able to reach HOA, unsure whether or not to come back or rebook hotel. Would appreciate it greatly. Thanks.
Still looking for information on Winetr Hill. Please help.