Storm cleanup: discarding debris, filing claims, restoring power

March 05--Utility crews continued working to restore power Monday to hundreds of homes and businesses in the Fredericksburg region after a powerful wind storm howled up the East Coast over the weekend, toppling trees and damaging property with gusts of 70 mph or more.

Dominion Power reported that the storm caused its fifth-largest power outage in recent history, with 690,000 customers across Virginia left without electricity after the storm that arrived Friday and continued through much of the day Saturday. That number was down to about 18,000 customers Monday afternoon, with most of those in Northern Virginia.

About 1,900 of Dominion's Stafford customers still did not have power as of Monday afternoon, down from 32,000 at the height of the storm. And about 336 of its customers in Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, King George and Caroline counties remained without electricity, down from about 12,000 on Friday.

Dominion expects to restore power to all of its customers statewide by Tuesday night.

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative reported fewer than 8,000 customers still without power Monday afternoon, down from nearly 50,000 at the peak of the storm. REC said power was expected to be restored Monday to customers in its eastern territory, which includes Spotsylvania, Caroline and Louisa counties, but that it could be Wednesday before all electricity is on again west of State Route 29.

"The most severe impact seemed to be as the high winds came over the Blue Ridge Mountains and knocked down trees, which broke power poles, cross arms and conductors, and damaged a lot of our facilities," said Ron Harris, vice president of engineering and operations for REC. "These areas experienced winds as high as 80 miles per hour, while in other parts of our service territory winds didn't reach these extreme speeds."

REC said mutual aid crews helped it more than double its workforce in responding to the storm. Crews had replaced or identified about 175 broken poles as of Monday afternoon.

"When such extensive repairs are required on lines serving a small number of members, it sometimes takes crews several hours to a full day of labor to restore relatively few outages," the utility explained in a news release.

The wind storm also forced the partial or full closure of an estimated 238 state-maintained roads from Thursday through the weekend, according to local Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kelly Hannon. Of the Fredericksburg District's 14 counties, Caroline and King George had the most roads impacted by the storm, she said.

Crews also had to respond to 37 traffic signals district-wide that malfunctioned or were damaged during the storm.

Hannon said crews will be returning to area roads this week to remove any remaining debris left where quick cleanup work was done to open roadways.

The storm also left many residents with damaged homes and a big cleanup task ahead. To help, the Rappahannock Regional Landfill is suspending charges for storm debris until March 12 to Fredericksburg and Stafford County residents.

Those with large amounts of debris were urged to use the landfill on Eskimo Hill Road in Stafford; the Belman Road Convenience Center in the city can accept only small amounts of storm debris.

The city of Fredericksburg announced a special curbside collection of small sticks and limbs from March 12-16 at no extra charge. Sticks must be bundled together with twine; more general yard waste should be in paper bags. Limbs must be no larger than 4 inches in diameter and cut to 4-ft. lengths. Volume is limited to about what would fit into three trash containers.

Ryan Brent at Chris Payne's Allstate Insurance office in Stafford County said that office has been receiving about twice as many calls as normal since the storm. "Mostly it's been roof damage and food spoilage because of the power outages," he said.

Brent cautioned homeowners dealing with property damage to do some research before hiring someone to do repairs or cleanup.

"Contractors will go to a damaged neighborhood and go door to door and say, 'Your neighbor has roof damage and we just worked on it, let me check out yours,' " Brent said. "But you've got to do your research on them, it could be a scam."

Also, to speed up the claim process, Brent said homeowners should get the contractor's estimate in writing.

"Having it in writing will cut turnaround [with the insurance company] by a week to 10 days," Brent said. "It makes a significant difference."

For those not sure if they should file an insurance claim or not, Brent said that is where the local agent can be of service.

"Always call us first," Brent said. "In some cases, it's better to just pay out of pocket. We will give you the best, sound advice for the situation you find yourself in.

"We also have a list of contractors we trust who won't overcharge or exaggerate costs. You'll just save a lot of headaches if you call your local agent."

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