Tens of thousands of Hampton Roads residents woke up Saturday morning without power.
Rainfall and high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ian swept through the region Friday night and into early Saturday morning, downing power lines and knocking out electricity.
About 33,000 residents — including 11,199 in Norfolk, 10,506 on the Peninsula and 7,117 in Virginia Beach — were without power at 8 a.m. Saturday, according to Paula Miller, a regional spokesperson for Dominion Energy. By 4 p.m., she said that there were 13,248 outages remained in the commonwealth with 10,839 in the Eastern Region, which includes some of northeast North Carolina, but nearly all power was restored to those Carolina homes. Around 4 p.m., there remained 2,855 outages in Norfolk, 3,745 in Virginia Beach, 3,198 on the Peninsula and about 900 in the Suffolk and Portsmouth areas, according to Miller.
Miller said she didn’t know how long it would take to restore power to everyone.
“Our crews are moving from one job to the next,” Miller wrote in an email Saturday afternoon. “We should see those numbers continue to drop as the crews finish at each work site. Our patrollers are still out assessing damage.”
Although overall weather conditions looked calm Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service in Wakefield advised residents not to let their guard down.
Rain and high winds, with gusts of up to 30 mph along the coast, are expected to return to Hampton Roads on Sunday afternoon and go into Monday. A wind advisory is slated for coastal locations Sunday evening into Monday.
“I would call this more of a lull,” meteorologist Mike Montefusco said Saturday afternoon. “We are looking for conditions to ramp back up tomorrow.”
Major roadways in Hampton Roads were largely spared from the storm.
“We were really lucky overnight; we didn’t see a lot of damage on our state-maintained roads,” Holly Christopher, a regional communications manager for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said Saturday.
A ramp on I-264 at Frederick Boulevard in Portsmouth was closed due to flooding, she said. The ramp will re-open after the water naturally drains.
Christopher said wind and rain also removed some pavement striping along a segment of 1-264 East at Witchduck Road in Virginia Beach. A double-lane closure between Newtown Road and Witchduck Road was closed for three hours Saturday while crews reapplied the striping.
The Jamestown-Scotland Ferry suspended service at about 1 a.m. due to wind and tide levels. But normal operations had resumed as of 6:40 a.m. Saturday.
Virginia State Police said there were no reported storm-related fatalities.
Amtrak reported one accident: A train heading to Norfolk from Washington hit a downed tree Friday evening in Suffolk, according to an Amtrak spokesperson. Crews repaired the damage, and service to Norfolk resumed at about 11:30 p.m. There were no reported injuries among passengers or crew.
Falling tree limbs hit four homes in Virginia Beach, said Tiffany Russell, a city spokesperson. The fire department responded and provided assistance. There were no reported injuries.
Russell added the city’s parking garages will remain open at no cost until Tuesday.
A tree also hit a Newport News school bus Friday evening. No injuries were reported.
Ocean conditions remained rough Saturday morning, according to Gary Felch, deputy chief with Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service. The VBLS is a private business that provides lifeguard services to the city.
“If we had lifeguard stands up, we would have the red flags out,” he said.
Felch said there’s a strong rip current and a surf report of 3 to 5 feet. The organization advises against swimming or surfing — but knows their warnings may be futile.
“Surfers are definitely going to be in the water,” he said. “We don’t encourage it, but there isn’t a way for us to stop it either.”
Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com
