The maintenance comes just under three weeks after a strong storm felled trees and knocked out power to homes in the area, near Virginia Hospital Center.
The power will be shut off from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Dominion said in a letter to affected residents. The work is being performed “near the primary line that feeds [the] neighborhood,” according to the letter.
High winds are causing problems in the area. On an otherwise beautiful, sunny day, more than 1,000 Dominion customers were without power in Arlington as of 4:30 p.m.
On Dittmar Road in North Arlington, two large trees were felled by the wind, bringing down a mess of telephone poles, live power lines and communication cables. The area is expected to be without power for an extended period of time. Stretched-thin Dominion Power repair crews have yet to arrive on scene.
Throughout Arlington, today’s wicked winds claimed numerous trees, power lines and — in at least two cases — cars.
Among areas where large trees were uprooted were N. Manchester Street at 9th Road, near McKinley Elementary School, and the 1200 block of Harrison St., off of Washington Blvd.
We’re hearing of a large tree and live power lines down on N. Harrison St. in the Westover section of Arlington, near the intersection with N. Washington St.
Police and fire have the area blocked off and are asking residents on the 1200 block of N. Harrison (near Virginia Hospital Center) to stay in their homes.
Arlington Police and Fire personnel have been busy all day responding to calls of trees down, wires down, trees and branches on wires, trees catching fire due to lines falling on them, wires and trees blocking roads, and combinations thereof. There have been at least 16 such calls in the past two hours.
In some cases first responders have been able to clear trees from the road by themselves. In cases where wires are down or branches are leaning on wires, all firefighters can do at this point is block off the area and add the incident to Dominion’s long to-do list.
