Warming Center Opens In Spotsylvania County For Residents Without Power

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, VA — A warming center is now open on Courthouse Road in Spotsylvania County, the county's government announced on Monday night. The center intends to assist the thousands of county residents who were left without power after Monday's snowstorm.

The shelter is located at located the county school system's maintenance building at 8720 Courthouse Road, near the access road beside the Snow Branch Library in the Marshall Center. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, residents are required to wear masks inside the shelter. The only animals allowed in the building are service animals.

As of 11 p.m. on Monday, 29,000 electric customers in Spotsylvania County were without power. 9,000 Dominion Energy customers were affected by outages in the area, in addition to mearly 20,000 customers of the Rappahannock Electric Collective.

The electric companies have not offered a timeline for when power could be restored. However, they have warned residents that power outages could last several days due to widespread damage from the storm, including downed trees and power lines.

Any precipitation that may have melted on Monday is expected to refreeze overnight, officials said. This could further delay power crews' attempts to rectify outages.

Read moreL Power Outages Reported By NOVEC, Dominion In Stafford County

Spotsylvania County is currently under a state of emergency. The state of emergency will allow the county to seek help from regional agencies and could allow for reimbursement from the state government for storm-related expenses.

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