Power still out; local hotels fill up

Four days after the start of last week’s severe winter storm, thousands of Piedmont-area residents remained without power Tuesday.

Meanwhile, most Culpeper hotels were fully booked while others sought refuge in local cold-weather shelters.

“Our right-of-ways look like a war zone,” said Robbie Beard, Culpeper district manager with Rapphannock Electric Cooperative, in a news release Monday night. “Large limbs and entire trees must be cleared before we even reach lines for repairs.”

As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, 2,255 REC customers in the five-county area were still in the dark. Culpeper County had the most folks powerless (832) followed by Orange County (700).

In Madison County, 287 REC customers had no power at 5 p.m. followed by Rappahannock (234) and Fauquier counties (202).

In Culpeper at mid-day, the western part of the county had the most outages, said Brian Wolfe, REC spokesman. The company hopes to have everyone back on line by Friday; however, that will depend on what today’s storm does.

Northwest of town along U.S. 522, the cold-weather shelter at Salem Volunteer Fire Department opened back up Tuesday night as another winter wallop began. Donnie Exline with the fire department said the Red Cross was on the scene, providing cots, blankets and food for anyone in need of shelter.

Two guys from the National Guard were also stationed at Salem Fire, equipped with a five-ton truck for transports.

Since the shelter opened Saturday, 22 people have stayed there. And over at St. Stephen’s in town, a dozen came through.

The 88-room Holiday Inn Express on Bus. 29 has remained fully booked since Friday, according to manager Lyndon Moore. Employees are staying in some of the rooms — otherwise many could not get back into work because of the weather, he said. But the majority of rooms are occupied by out-of-town power crews and local people whose power is out.

“It’s a different grouping,” Moore said of planned business travelers canceling their reservations because of the snow. “Our client mix is much more local.”

Next door at Best Western, there were no vacancies Tuesday, and the story was the same at nearby Comfort Inn and Microtel.

The snow seems to have had the opposite effect on historic Fountain Hall Bed & Breakfast downtown on South East Street. Owner Kathi Walker said they’ve seen canceled reservations the past two weekends because of it.

“Business has been slower than usual,” she said, noting they had two available rooms Friday, but the weekend, weather permitting, was fully booked. “I’m hoping things don’t get worse.”

Overall, Walker said, the economy continues to affect the travel industry.

Wolfe said the aftermath of Friday and Saturday’s snow and sleet event is one of the worst REC crews have ever seen. The worst, he said, was Hurricane Isabel in late summer 2003, when crews worked nine days restoring power.

However, work conditions are worse now, Wolfe added, because of the cold and perpetual precipitation. REC has nearly doubled its work force since it began restoration efforts late Friday, with crews coming from as far away as North Carolina and from co-ops in southern Virginia.

The parking lot at Best Western and Holiday Inn, in fact, is serving as a staging area for power crews, Wolfe said.

Most local customers of Dominion Virginia Power had their electricity back on by 5 p.m. Tuesday, though Dominion outages were still widespread around Charlottesville.