October 2, 2003
4 p.m.

RICHMOND, Va. - With its goal of restoring all customers affected by Hurricane Isabel in sight, Dominion Virginia Power Thursday reduced the number of storm-related outages across the state to less than 3,500.

Since the storm struck on September 18, the company has restored power to more than 1.8 million customers and should have service restored to virtually all customers by Friday.

“This has been a long and challenging experience for both our crews and our customers,” said Jimmy D. Staton, senior vice president-Operations. “We appreciate the patience and understanding of all of our customers especially those who are still without power.”

The remaining customers without power are concentrated in the Gloucester and Peninsula areas of Eastern Virginia. There are more than 700 work locations associated with outages in these areas.

On Wednesday, a 40-year old underground lineman was injured when he came into contact with an energized electrical wire. Richard D. Mustain, a Dominion employee, is in stable condition at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond. Mustain was performing restoration work to a pocket of customers in Richmond.

“The prayers of all Dominion employees are with Rick and his family,” said Staton. “This accident underscores the seriousness of our task, and should serve as a reminder to the public to please stay away from downed power lines.”

Customers following outage numbers on the company’s Web site, www.dom.com, should note that the outages listed are not specific to outages caused by Hurricane Isabel. While Dominion has restored power to most customers affected by Isabel, routine outage information continues to be reflected on the Web site.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a diversified and integrated energy portfolio that includes 24,000 megawatts of generation and 6.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves. Dominion also serves 5 million retail energy customers in nine states.

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