RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC/WAVY) — It’s been over 48 hours since ice and freezing rain knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of Virginians Saturday, and power restoration efforts are still underway across Central Virginia.

As of 6 a.m. Monday morning, more than 70,000 Dominion Energy customers were without power.

Dominion Energy says restoration efforts are in full swing, and the vast majority of customers can expect to be back online between now and Tuesday.

Dominion Energy posted on Facebook Sunday saying there were over 5,200 workers and 500 bucket trucks out in the commonwealth to help restore power.

“This is the most damaging and widespread ice storm we have seen in Virginia since January of 2000,” said Charlene Whitfield, senior vice president of Power Delivery for Dominion Energy. “Fortunately, our storm restoration plan brings together resources from across our system and beyond to allow us to safely respond to our customers – even in the most difficult conditions.”

The company says they have identified damage in 3,500 places and addressed issues at 1,100 of those places.

Crews will restore power first to public health and safety facilities like hospitals and fire departments.

  • Courtesy – Dominion Energy
  • Courtesy – Dominion Energy
  • Courtesy – Dominion Energy
  • Courtesy – Dominion Energy
  • Courtesy – Dominion Energy

Next, they will work to get the largest number of customers in the shortest amount of time back online.

Restoration efforts will then focus on homes and businesses. You can report an outage to Dominion Energy here.

Rappanannock Electric Cooperative also have crews working to restore power. As of 5 a.m. Monday, nearly 5,000 customers were without power.

Officials report some outages could last into at least Tuesday night. Customers could expect some delays as trees spring back up and line slap together, new outages are possible.

You can report an outage to REC here.

In Hampton Roads, residents saw heavy rain spread in much of the area. So far, 11 out of first 14 days of February have had some amount of rainfall. That means almost 80% of the days in this month

Dominion Energy says the majority of outages were caused by tree and powerline damage due to ice. Dominion crews worked around the clock to get service restored to another 8,500 Eastern region customers since 5 p.m. on Saturday and continue service restoration efforts at this hour.

To report outages, a customer may call officials at 866-DOM-HELP (866-366-4357).  Outages may also be tracked and reported online at Report Outage or Emergency | Virginia | Dominion Energy or through the Dominion Energy app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.