Dominion: Power Outages May Last All Week

Dominion Virginia Power estimates more than 250,000 customers remain without power in Northern Virginia as of Sunday afternoon—and it could be nearly a week before electricity is completely restored in Northern Virginia.

Dominion Vice President Rodney Blevins says additional storms on Saturday knocked out power to 55,000 more customers, making this the third-worst power outage in Virginia history.

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Nearly 2.5 million people (1.5 million Dominion customers) in Virginia were originally affected

Blevins said more than 100 lineworkers are here or en route from 13 states and Quebec, but the restoration effort will take time. The storm cut a path from Indiana to North Carolina, and many workers in Virginia they could usually call on have to stay and aid efforts in their own states.

"Of the one million that were originally affected, we expect 80-85 percent to be operational by Tuesday night," said Blevins. "Ninety to 95 percent should be back by Thursday. Nearly all remaining servers will be restored by Saturday and all by Sunday. We would like to thank customers for their patience. We will be continuing to work around the clock."

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) says "the scope and scale of power outages affect virtually every region of the state."

"It's going to be many days before some of the power is back on," the governor said in a media call on Sunday afternoon. "I know it is a horrible inconvenience, but it is critical our citizens work well together. Please know we are doing everything we can at the state level. Power companies are doing everything prudent in order to get everything back on. But there is risk of storms that could lead to more outages, so the situation could actually deteriorate."

The National Weather Service says temperatures will be in the high 90s—with the heat index of 100-105—through Wednesday.

The governor says there have been seven fatalities from the storm, and more are expected as people cope with the heat. The state has opened 25 shelters and 110 cooling centers.

The state has been talking to Federal Emergency Management officials to see about assistance, but has not made any official plans yet.

State officials will also be meeting later on Sunday to discuss possible traffic control situations as people prepare to return to work or hit the road for a vacation during the holiday week.

Some possibilities include staggered leave times or lifting HOV restrictions, but more information will be available on those decisions after 5 p.m. Sunday.

The governor says he will also be briefed later on Sunday on why the Fairfax County 911 system was out of order on Saturday. Fairfax County Supervisor Chair Sharon Bulova called the outage "unacceptable."

"I flew up to Fairfax to meet with Supervisor Bulova on Saturday," said McDonnell. "We made immediate inquiries with Verizon." The system was fully restored by 3 p.m.

"Verizon had their own storm-related challenges," he said. "911 is the lifeblood of our emergency system. You don't ever expect it to go down. We just don't know at this point.  I want the answers as well. The good news is it working now."

Read  for more on phone problems in the aftermath of the storm.