Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It’s going to take a while before the lights are back on for everyone. That was the assessment Wednesday morning from both Dominion and Southside Electric Cooperative. Winter Storm Harlow started out as snow on Tuesday, before transitioning to freezing rain and ice overnight, causing power outages across the region. 

As of 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12, there were 3,006 homes without power in Prince Edward County, 433 in Cumberland and 336 in Buckingham. By 7 a.m., that number in Prince Edward alone had jumped to 4,532. Southside officials blamed overnight ice for causing the additional problems this morning. 

“Freezing precipitation from Winter Storm Harlow is adding heavy ice on top of already wet snow, putting significant strain on trees and power lines across our service territory,” Southside officials said in a statement posted to their social media. “Crews will prioritize any restorations related to EMS, Fire, Emergency Services, and road closures.” 

Southside officials cautioned that with freezing rain still making it harder for work crews to travel this morning, it’s going to take time before power gets restored. 

“We assure our members that power will be restored as soon as it is safe to do so,” Southside officials said. 

The storm knocked out power in parts of Kingsville, Worsham and Tuggle in Prince Edward, with Prospect also being hit hard. In Farmville, several hundred homes are still in the dark around the Moton Museum and Longwood University areas. 

No quick fixes with Winter Storm Harlow

The big question with all of these is when will the lights come back on. Give work crews some time, Dominion officials say. Part of the problem is where the damage happened. Some of these outages stem from downed power lines, out in rural areas. It’s not as simple as just pulling up to a pole on the side of the road. Instead, to repair some of these lines, it means going offroad. As a result, the current estimate for power to be back on is between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. for all the areas affected in Buckingham, Cumberland and Prince Edward counties. Now that’s assuming the storm, which was still going strong as of 6:30 a.m., tapers off. 

That’s not a guarantee. The National Weather Service out of Wakefield forecasts that snow will continue through the early morning hours, ending about 10 a.m. before continuing as freezing rain. Then there’s a “dry spell” expected between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., before the freezing rain starts back up and continues into the night. That’s what officials from both power companies want to caution about. There is the potential for another round of outages tonight as all of this melts and then freezes again.

Despite the outages, State Police and all sheriff’s offices in our region continue to ask people to stay home if possible. In the Appomattox region, Virginia State Police report 108 crashes since the start of Winter Storm Harlow, seven of which had reported injuries.