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BREAKING: Massive Power Outage Reported in Alexandria

Thousands of Alexandria residents are in the dark Friday night due to a massive power outage.

At 8 p.m., the utility company was reporting over 12,750 customers without power. As of 8:20 p.m., that number had gone down to 6,846.

More than 3,500 customers are also without power in parts of Arlington, across the Alexandria border.

The neighborhoods affected include Del Ray, Potomac Yard, and Fairlington. Some have reported the power flickering.

Power restoration is currently estimated between 10 p.m.-1 a.m., according to Dominion’s website. The cause of the outage is a malfunctioning circuit at a substation, according to a company spokeswoman.

Update at 9:35 p.m. — Alexandria police are reminding residents to treat dark traffic signals as a four-way stop.

“Dominion Power has reported a major power outage throughout the City of Alexandria,” APD said. “This outage has resulted in many intersections without power. Treat all intersections that are without power as a four way stop. Please stay alert and drive safely.”

Update at 9:15 p.m. — Power was briefly restored but is back off, according to a Dominion spokeswoman. A number of residents https://twitter.com/PeggyDomEnergy/status/1319808138497896448from around the city said on Twitter that they are still without power.

More via social media:

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Dominion Energy Awards $15K for Alexandria’s Mobile Dental Bus

Going to the dentist can be expensive, and a grant from Dominion Energy will help Alexandria kids keep those pearly whites glistening.

Dominion’s charitable foundation announced this week that it awarded $1.6 million to more than 200 organizations in 13 states, including $15,000 to the Alexandria City Public Schools Wellness on Wheels (WOW) bus, a mobile dental unit that provides primary dental care to students in schools across the city.

“Preventive oral care is not just about your teeth. It’s critical to overall physical, emotional and mental health,” said former ACPS Health Services Coordinator, Dr. Barbara Nowak. “A cavity left untreated is a dangerous thing. It’s an infection in your tooth and if you don’t treat it, it can cause additional damage — especially because of the proximity to the brain. It can lead to an abscess caused by a bacterial infection and this, left untreated, could be life threatening.”

The WOW Bus, which has been operating since 2014, is managed by Alexandria nonprofit Neighborhood Health. Over the course of 70 days during the 2018-2019 school year, licensed dental professionals treated 568 ACPS students, according to the school system. There were also 956 procedures, which include extractions, fillings, cleanings and root canals.

“We are pleased to support our nonprofit partners as they work to make positive impacts in our communities,” said Hunter A. Applewhite, president of the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation, in a statement. “These grants are intended to support the most basic needs — food, shelter and medical care for our neighbors in need.”

Earlier this month, students at the T.C. Williams High School International Academy were treated by the mobile clinic for the first time. Among them was Gabriel, a Guatemalan student who had not received dental care in two years.

“The last time I went to the dentist, I had to miss my last block and I missed some school work that I had to make up,” Gabriel told ACPS Express. “I don’t like to miss my classes. In Guatemala it’s expensive to pay for school, but here it is free.”

ACPS currently provides WOW Bus services to John Adams Elementary School, William Ramsay Elementary School, Patrick Henry Elementary School, James K. Polk Elementary School, Cora Kelly School, Mount Vernon Community School, Samuel Tucker Elementary School, Jefferson Houston School, Ferdinand T. Day School and both T.C. Williams High School campuses.

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Morning Notes

Seminary Road Saga Continues — Despite suggestions “that the Alexandria Fire Department had significant input into the Complete Streets Design Guidelines and whether to narrow Seminary Road, documents obtained by city residents under the Freedom of Information Act reveal this was not the case.” [Alexandria Times]

Sushi Restaurant Coming to ‘West Alex’ — “Sushi Jin Next Door, which opened its first restaurant in Silver Spring in 2006 and now has a second location in Woodbridge, is opening a third location in Alexandria, Virginia. The new location will be part of the West Alex mixed-use development at King Street and North Beauregard Street.” [WTOP]

New Glass Recycling Bin Now Open — “Alexandria residents wanting to recycle glass now have a fifth bin as an option. MOM’s Organic Market at 3831 Mt. Vernon Avenue is the location of the new purple recycling bin. The city ended curbside glass recycling on Jan. 15, citing increasing recycling costs and the lack of glass-sorting facilities in the region.” [Patch]

ACPS To Buy Five Electric School Buses — “Under the terms of the grant, Dominion Energy will pay the additional costs towards each of the five buses that ACPS was already scheduled to buy this summer, allowing ACPS to upgrade them to electric vehicles. The goal is to have the new electric buses on the roads in time for the start of the 2020-21 school year in September.” [ACPS]

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City Changing Streetlights to LEDs

Alexandria’s lights are about to shine a little differently than most folks in the city might be used.

The City of Alexandria is working with Dominion Energy to retrofit the city’s streetlights with new LED lights. Currently, 150 lights have been swapped out, with the goal of replacing 2,500 by summer 2020. The city will have to replace 12 lights per day to reach that goal by June 20, the start of summer.

The new lights last five times as long as incandescent lights and reduce energy consumption by 90 percent, according to the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services. The city also said the new lights are brighter, will save money and help align with the Eco-City Alexandria and Vision Zero goals.

After years of delays that frustrated some regional leaders, LED light fixtures are being installed throughout the area, with new LED lights coming to Arlington and Tysons as well.

Photo via City of Alexandria

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Local Nature Program Receives Grant Funding for Four Mile Run Education

The Four Mile Run Conservatory Foundation was announced as the recipient of a $10,000 grant from Dominion Energy to help local students learn about Four Mile Run — the creek that runs between Alexandria and Arlington.

The funding goes to the Nature Explorers and Restorer Project, which aims to help local elementary and middle school-age children in Arlandria and other surrounding communities, according to a press release.

“Exploring nature up close and improving things by hand, kids build a personal relationship to land, water, and community that makes them happier, healthier, and stronger in their environmental stewardship,” Four Mile Run Conservatory Foundation President Kurt Moser said in the press release. “Dominion’s support allows us to provide quality programming where kids make scientific observations, protect natural lands, and discover the miraculous urban ecosystem here at Four Mile Run.”

Participants in the program learn about various aspects of the local ecosystem and use scientific equipment to make observations and keep a journal. The grant will help pay for equipment like binoculars and microscopes, as well as the mud boots and gloves necessary for work in the muddy waters along Four Mile Run.

The Four Mile Run Conservatory is a non-profit established in 2016 to promote natural restoration and advocacy following years of work to return to the wetlands to their natural state.

“Since its founding, the Four Mile Run Conservatory Foundation has engaged more than 450 volunteers in over 3,000 hours of service at lower Four Mile Run, planting more than sixty trees, removing four tons of litter, and documenting over 165 species of flora and fauna,” the group said in the press release.

In August, the group led a series of kayak cleanups where volunteers in kayaks collected 155 pounds of trash, primarily plastic bottles.

A Fall Hawk Walk is planned on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 10 a.m. Guests are invited to bring binoculars and field guides to watch for migrating hawks and other avian residents of the park.

Photo courtesy Four Mile Run Conservatory Foundation

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Power Outages Persist in Alexandria

Update at 4:40 p.m. — The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria and Port City Brewing have both reopened. AWLA will be open for business and adoptions until 7 p.m. The storm-related outage near Inova Alexandria Hospital is still ongoing.

Earlier: Some 250 Dominion customers in Alexandria are still in the dark following yesterday’s storms.

That’s down from the nearly 4,000 outages reported in the city last night, primarily in the West End, but the remaining outages are causing some problems.

The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria says it is “closed until further notice” due to an ongoing outage at its headquarters at 4101 Eisenhower Avenue. The shelter is not taking any additional animals from Alexandria animal control, per scanner traffic.

“Our power is out currently, though we have a backup generator so that we still have the functions essential to our animals’ (and staff’s) health and safety,” AWLA spokeswoman Gina Hardter tells ARLnow. “However, the outage limits the capabilities of some of our customer service functions, which is why we are currently closed for business.”

“Our team is working hard to make sure that the animals are safe and comfortable until power is restored, and we will announce on our website and social media when we reopen for business,” Hardter added.

Port City Brewing is also affected by the outage. Power is expected to be restored to Port City, AWLA and other affected Dominion customers along Duke Street and Eisenhower Avenue by 5 p.m., according to the utility company’s website.

For another storm-related outage near Inova Alexandria Hospital, affecting just over 100 Dominion customers, restoration is currently estimated between 6-11 p.m.

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Power Outages Reported in Seminary Hill

The power is out in part of Alexandria’s Seminary Hill neighborhood.

Dominion is reporting just under 1,400 customers without electricity as a result of a broken pole, according to the company’s outage map.

The power is expected to be restored between 3-6 p.m., just in time for Halloween trick-or-treating. (Though expected severe storms will bring the possibility of additional outages tonight.)

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Power Outages Abound Across Alexandria on Windy Day

(Updated at 2:25 p.m.) Amid a Wind Advisory for the D.C. area, more than 2,600 Dominion customers are currently without power in Alexandria.

As of 1:30 p.m. Dominion reported 2,654 households and businesses without electricity in the city.

“Our @DominionEnergy crews are working to get the power back on!” a Dominion spokeswoman said via Twitter. “High winds bringing down trees & branches have caused many outages.”

The largest outage in Alexandria was just north of Holmes Run, near N. Van Dorn Street, where firefighters had earlier responded to a report of a small brush fire after an electrical transformer blew. Traffic signals were also said to be dark in the area.

Posted by Sam Cook on Thursday, October 17, 2019

A smaller outage, involving around 200 Dominion customers, was reported just west of Del Ray, near St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School.

Power should be restored in both areas by 7-9 p.m., according Dominion’s website.

The outages are also prompting at least one school and two recreation center closures in the city.

The Wind Advisory is in effect until 6 p.m., with gusty winds expected to continue this afternoon.

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