BUCKINGHAM — Over 1,600 customers are without power in central Buckingham due to an outage caused by a fallen tree.

According to Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC) spokesman Greg Kelly, more than 1,400 CVEC members served by the Mount Rush Substation in the county are without power. “CVEC has learned that a pole on the delivery line to the substation is broken and must be repaired by Dominion Virginia Power before power is restored,” he said.

Dominion spokeswoman Daisy Pridgen confirmed that crews are having to replace a 50-foot pole, “…which is going to take a while to do that.” About 248 Dominion customers are without power, she said.

The impacted area includes homes and businesses along U.S. Route 60 in the vicinity of the Buckingham Court House village, stated Pridgen. “…We don’t have an estimated time for restoration yet…We’re estimating this afternoon,” she said.

According to Kelly, the broken pole “is in a location that is inaccessible to a bucket truck which will slow restoration work. Dominion has provided an estimate of a minimum of five hours before repairs will be complete and power restored to CVEC and their customers in that area.”

Dominion delivers power to the Mount Rush Substation, he said.

According to Division Superintendent Dr. Cecil Snead, none of the county’s schools are currently affected by the outage.