In the dark
If your power went out during Monday’s snowstorm, you weren’t alone. The storm dumped as much as a foot of snow across central Virginia, and the Virginia Department of Transportation reported that “thousands of fallen trees and downed power lines” led to widespread outages.
By mid-afternoon on Monday, more than 31,000 of Dominion Energy’s 46,000 Albemarle County customers were without power, according to outage aggregator PowerOutage.US. In the city, 13,000 out of 24,000 households lost electricity.
“We encourage those in the hardest hit areas, including Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Northern Virginia, and Richmond to prepare for the possibility of being without power for multiple days,” reads a Dominion statement from Monday evening. “We know you are frustrated…Crews will work throughout the night to restore service.”
Many area residents spent Monday night without power, with temps dropping below 20 degrees. By the middle of the day on Tuesday, the percent of outages had decreased, but thousands locally still had no electricity access.
Percent of Dominion customers without power:
Albemarle
Noon Monday – 67
8 pm Monday – 62
8 am Tuesday – 46
Charlottesville
Noon Monday – 54
8 pm Monday – 25
8 am Tuesday – 16
Highway shut down for hours
The winter storm jammed up operations all across the state. Hundreds of drivers were stranded on I-95 for as much as 19 hours beginning on Monday evening. The slowdown started when a tractor-trailed lost control, leading to a domino effect of stopped commercial vehicles, the Associated Press reports. On midday Tuesday, the Virginia Department of Transportation was still hard at work getting people off the road. “We are working to get traffic moving again as best we can using every available interchange between Prince William & Caroline counties,” the agency reported early on Tuesday.
Photo: Tim Kaine
Senator Tim Kaine was among those stuck in his car on the blocked highway. “I started my normal 2 hour drive to DC at 1pm yesterday. 19 hours later, I’m still not near the Capitol,” he tweeted at 8:30 am on Tuesday morning. “I’m frustrated, but not in serious trouble. If you are in trouble on Virginia roads today, call @VaDOT at 1-800-FOR-ROAD.”
Virginia approves new maps
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Virginia approved new congressional and General Assembly maps, which will go into effect for this November’s elections.
An initial draft of the maps would have split Albemarle down the middle, putting the northern half of the county in the 7th Congressional District. The final maps keep all but the very northwest corner of the county in the 5th District. Though the district’s lines change in places, analysis from The Washington Post says the partisan composition of the new 5th District is very similar to the partisan competition of the old iteration, which Bob Good won by 5 percent in 2020. Statewide, the Post says the current map has five solidly Democratic seats, three toss-ups, and three districts that lean Republican. The new map has six districts that favor Dems, one toss-up, and three that favor Republicans. (Currently, Democrats control seven of Virginia’s 11 districts.)
The reshuffling has impacts in the state chambers, too—under the new maps, longtime Charlottesville and Albemarle state senator Creigh Deeds no longer lives in the district he currently represents. Deeds, however, says he plans to move out of Bath County and into the Charlottesville area so he can run for re-election. At the House of Delegates level, four different delegates currently represent portions of Albemarle. Under the new map, that’s down to just two.—Ben Hitchcock
In brief
C’ville bachelorette gone in record time
“Well, That Was The Quickest Elimination In Bachelor History,” reads a Bustle headline about Salley Carson, a Charlottesville native and contestant on the reality show’s 26th season. Carson called off her wedding just weeks before appearing on the show—and on the first day of filming found that she just wasn’t ready to turn around and find love so quickly. Despite an offer to stay in the competition from bachelor Clayton Echard, Carson departed in the season’s first episode.
Slow down, plead locals
A Richmond woman died in a car crash on 5th Street late on New Year’s Eve, leading local advocacy group Livable Cville to call for safety adjustments on the busy roadway. Members of LC held a press conference at the site of the crash on January 2, demanding the city reduce the speed limit from 45 to 40 and make other safety changes to the street.
Hospital limits visitors
The UVA hospital has reinstated limitations on visitors, citing the uptick in coronavirus cases in the region. Since January 3, visitors have not been allowed in the emergency department, outpatient facilities, the lobby, the cafeteria, or any public spaces. The hospital does make exceptions for pediatric patients and those nearing the end of life.
Youngkin staffs up
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin continues to add new names to his staff ahead of his inauguration later this month. Youngkin’s chief of staff will be Jeff Goettman, a businessman who worked in Trump’s treasury department. He also hired McGuireWoods big-shot lawyer Richard Cullen, a Republican Virginia Attorney General in the 1990s, as a counselor.
Pouring it on
At Mas Tapas, muralist Chicho Lorenzo notes that the snow “made an awesome collaboration,” adding a frothy head to the beverage held up by one of the revelers in Lorenzo’s mural.
