If you’ve ever had a power outage resulting from a major storm you probably questioned, “when will they get to us”? Here are a few things I’ve learned dealing with Dominion Power over the years.

Outage Map – First things first, check the regional outage map which covers their entire service area. On any given random day you will find multiple blue and green dots scattered on the map. It’s the red dots you’re looking for. If you consider the average sub-division in our area is between 50-200 homes an outage of >2,500 will affect 10+ neighborhoods. These are very serious service interruptions that become the highest priority tickets for technicians to address. You can zoom in to see just the Northern Virginia outage map. These maps display well on mobile phones. Dominion has developed an interactive outage map which allows you to zoom down to your street.

It would seem to me that Dominion knows immediately how many homes have been effected so reporting your particular outage would be overkill. However, sometimes you may be the only house effected if a tree came down on your property and you have overhead power lines.

Here a tree limb came down and ripped the overhead power line straight off the house. Power remained active but the lines were laying across the yard. Report this type of damage immediately and try to mark off the area if possible. Dominion is responsible for maintaining all the equipment up and including the meter attached to the side of the house. If the lines are damaged they will replace them. If the plastic sheathing is worn out they will replace it. This is totally free of charge and requires nothing from the homeowner. They will get you back up and running, just be patient!

If the main power lines run on your side of the street you can have Dominion trim any trees that have dangerous limbs near the lines if you call 1-866-DOM-HELP. This does not count for the individual powerline that goes to your house only the main powerlines. Any limbs that are cut from the trimming will likely be yours to clean up. If they are proactively clearing limbs in your neighborhood they will usually dispose of any limbs. If you call them out specifically expect to dispose of the wood yourself.