RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Energy crews have restored power to 92 percent of the customers in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia impacted by Hurricane Dorian, as of mid-afternoon Saturday. Thousands of employees and contract crew members are working around the clock to restore power to the remaining 35,700 customers across all three states.

In South Carolina, crews are expected to restore power to nearly all customers by Sunday night. As of Saturday afternoon, 10,600 of 274,000 customers impacted in South Carolina remain without power.

"Our crews continue to work around the clock in very hazardous conditions in order to safely and reliably restore power to our customers so that their lives can return to normal as quickly as possible," said Keller Kissam, president of Electric Operations for Dominion Energy South Carolina.

In Virginia, crews are expected to have restored power to nearly all customers by Saturday night and nearly all northeastern North Carolina customers by Sunday night, except for certain high-impact coastal areas. As of Saturday afternoon, 25,100 of the 174,000 customers impacted in northeast North Carolina and Virginia remain without power.

Photos and b-roll available for download and media use: https://news.dominionenergy.com/hurricane-dorian
 

Patrol teams are assessing damage, with helicopters and drones supplementing on-ground efforts, in the hardest hit areas of Virginia Beach and northeastern North Carolina. Customers still awaiting restoration will be able to get individual estimated times for restoration as crews complete their assessment.

After a storm passes, weather conditions permitting, we work to ensure public safety and to restore power to essential services and facilities critical to public health and safety, such as hospitals, fire and police departments, and public water systems. Crews then work to return service to the largest number of customers in the shortest amount of time. Once major repairs are completed, smaller groups of customers and individual homes are restored.

"Excellent progress has been made so far to restore power, but our work is not done until every customer has electricity," said Ed Baine, Senior Vice President of Electric Distribution. "We're a mission-driven organization and we are here to serve our customers and communities."

If you do experience an outage:

• Always report your outage.
• North Carolina and Virginia customers can report outages by visiting www.dominionenergy.com/outage-center/report-and-check-outages or calling 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357).
• South Carolina customers can report outages at www.DominionEnergySC.com or by calling 1-888-333-4465.
• Turn off all appliances, except one light to prevent overload when power comes back on.
• Be careful to avoid downed power lines, which may be energized and deadly. Remember that downed wires can be hidden under fallen trees or branches or under flooded streets or yards. Stay at least 30 feet away and make sure your family, pets, and neighbors avoid downed wires. Please report downed power lines at the following numbers and stay on the line to speak with a customer service representative so we can help make the area safe:
• North Carolina and Virginia customers can report downed lines at 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357).
• South Carolina customers can report downed lines at 1-888-333-4465.

About Dominion Energy

Nearly 7.5 million customers in 18 states energize their homes and businesses with electricity or natural gas from Dominion Energy (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va. The company is committed to sustainable, reliable, affordable and safe energy and is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy with about $100 billion of assets providing electric generation, transmission and distribution, as well as natural gas storage, transmission, distribution and import/export services. The company expects to cut generating fleet carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent by 2050 and reduce methane emissions from its gas assets 50 percent by 2030. Please visit www.DominionEnergy.com to learn more.