Storms leave CU customers without power

CU Director of Marketing Mark Viguet estimates roughly half of those who lost power have electricity restored, though it’s too early to know exact figures, he said. CU officials expect to have restored power to all customers by this afternoon.

“We’ll do everything we can to get our facilities back up and power restored, but you may have homeowners with individual issues that will have to be addressed,” Viguet said. “If customers sustained damage to their electrical systems, that may preclude them from actually taking service from us.”

Damage to City Utilities’ distribution system was heaviest in its southern service area, particularly around the James River Power Station. A moderate number of customers along the I-44 corridor also experienced outage.

Neighborhoods without power include Millwood and Highland Springs developments, as well as Eagles Gate, where extreme winds blew some ground-mounted transformers off their concrete pads.

Five of the six transmission circuits feeding out of the power plant were damaged, along with 15 sets of insulators on a transmission circuit feeding out from the west side of the station.

A large steel structure at the Lake Springfield Dam bluff was damaged, and Viguet said nine distribution poles near the intersection of highways 60 and 65 were lost.

Viguet said it’s too soon to estimate a cost for repairs.

CU serves approximately 103,000 customers.