RICHMOND, Va. — Thousands of residents across central Virginia woke up without power after a storm Monday night brought damaging winds of up to 60 mph to the area. Throughout the storm, for Central Virginia, Dominion Energy reports about 68,000 people in total lost power.
Warren Fiske and Annette McKelvey, both residents of Tuckahoe Village in Henrico County, lost power around 8:30 p.m. Monday.
"We're down to 56 degrees right now in the house," Fiske said. "We are walking around in sweatshirts and layered clothing."
McKelvey described similar conditions inside her home.
"When we got up it was probably about 60 in the house and it seems like it's going down," McKelvey said.
CBS 6 spoke with them at around 11 a.m. Tuesday, when Dominion Energy was in the neighborhood working to restore power.
"I'm rooting for trucks. I hope they — I hope it comes on. There's a group of houses in here always the last to come on in the neighborhood," Fiske said.
After about 15 hours without power, their lights and heat turned back on around noon.
Dominion Power Spokesperson Craig Carper says rural areas are typically going to be last to see power turn back on. Priority is given to clearing downed power lines and getting power to health and safety facilities.
Henrico County also saw several trees down, including one that fell on a home. Eldar Ruiz, owner of YA Tree and Lawn Services LLC, was on the scene early to begin cleanup.
"When you have strong winds like that, you tend to see things like that happen. We just say when you get a chance to remove them, get it done. It could've been way worse," Ruiz said.
In Powhatan, several residents also woke up without power. Fire and police handled 70 calls in the span of two and a half hours, all related to downed power lines, trees across roads, and trees on homes. As of around 1 p.m. Tuesday, a home's driveway off of Flint Wood remained blocked. Just down the road, no one was hurt after a tree fell onto a home in Shawnee Lake.
Chesterfield County had over a dozen calls for downed power lines or trees Monday night, including one report of a tree falling on a home. No one was hurt.
From widespread outages to trees crashing onto homes, Monday night's storm left its mark across central Virginia.
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