Icy Trees, Winds Could Create Havoc in Parts of State / Storm May Cause Power Outages Today in Northwestern Va.

By PETER BACQUE

An ice storm today could produce widespread power outages in northern and western Virginia.

“We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen with ice-laden trees hit by winds,” Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Dan Genest said yesterday.

“But we don’t think it’s going to be good.”

Weather forecasters say up to an inch of freezing rain could fall today and tonight along and north of a Fredericksburg- Charlottesville-Covington line.

That northwestern region is home to about 860,000 Dominion Virginia Power electricity customers, Genest said.

The company’s power lines are designed to carry some freezing rain, Genest said: “When it gets above a quarter-inch, we run into problems.”

Ice and later high winds “lead to downed power lines, downed phone lines and impassable roads,” said Marc LaFountain with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, which increased its readiness yesterday.

Contract crews from Dominion Virginia Power were on their way yesterday to the Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville, Genest said.

“The problem is it’s such a big geographic area,” he said. “We don’t know exactly where the damage is going to be. So the game plan is to bring in our teams from central Virginia and Hampton Roads areas and assemble them here in Richmond, and when we know where they need to go, we’ll send them out.”

Of course, said meteorologist John Darnley at the Baltimore- Washington Weather Forecast Office in Sterling, the storm’s ultimate track will dictate where the ice will occur.

“There’s still a level of uncertainty,” he said, which is a common forecast problem with winter storms in Virginia. Small changes in a storm’s path or intensity can make for large differences in a storm’s effects.

From the capital region on south and east, the state “is looking at basically a rainstorm,” said warning coordination meteorologist Bill Sammler at the Wakefield Weather Forecast Office.

LaFountain reminded people who may have power failures that in the aftermath of winter storms, the state has seen a number of deaths caused by improperly used portable generators and kerosene heaters.

To avoid carbon-monoxide poisoning, the Department of Emergency Management urged that people run generators only outdoors in dry areas away from home air intakes. Kerosene heaters should be kept at least 3 feet from furniture, blankets, carpets and other flammable objects.

— Contact staff writer Peter Bacque at pbacque@timesdispatch.com or (804) 619-6813.

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