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It’s going to take a while. That was the response from every power company The Herald has spoken with this morning, when asked for an ETA on when lights would come back on. Tropical Storm Debby knocked down trees and caused creeks and rivers to flood overnight, making it harder for crews to even get to the problems, let alone fix the power outages. 

“Flooded roads and trees down make it more difficult and dangerous to reach some areas,” Central Virginia Electric Cooperative officials said in a statement. “Crews will work through the day to restore power.” 

That’s why no one can give a timeframe for when it’ll all be fixed, as they still haven’t been able to access parts of Buckingham and Prince Edward counties to see what the problem is. In Buckingham, for example, Matthews Creek didn’t just overflow its banks. It flooded over the bridge on Woods Road, causing serious damage. Parts of the bridge itself were washed away. 

Cross over into Prince Edward County and you’ll find more of the same. Moore Road remained flooded as of 8 a.m., as did Route 636 and others across the area. 

Dominion estimates that most of the work should be finished by this afternoon. For people in the Tuggle area and around Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward, power should be back on by noon or 1 p.m. at the latest. Over in Cumberland and Buckingham, work’s going to take a bit longer, as most of the areas affected are deeply rural and hard to reach. 

That’s true for Trent’s Mill, where Dominion officials say it could be 6 p.m. before work is finished there. It’s the same around Guinea Mills and the Oak Hill Mennonite Church, as well as Sprouse’s Corner and the area around Dillwyn. Work there could take until 7 p.m. or later Friday night, because of the amount of debris needing to be removed and water damage navigated. We’ve had people in Arvonia ask about their lights and Dominion officials say they couldn’t give an estimate on that problem, only because work crews haven’t been able to get out there yet and assess the damage. 

Power outages continue to improve 

The good news is that work is going fast. In Prince Edward, as of 8 a.m., there were 745 houses in the dark. By 11 a.m., that number’s dropped to 559. In Cumberland, there are still 146 homes without power, mostly around the Trent’s Mill area, while Buckingham has dropped from a high of 590 at 8 a.m. to 110.