December 11, 2002

RICHMOND, Va. - Dominion Virginia Power line crews Wednesday battled the season's second ice storm in a week, this time in the Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia.

As of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, the storm had affected a total of about 99,000 customers and power had been restored to all but 36,000. The company expects it may be late Friday before all customers have their lights back on.

Staunton, Harrisonburg, Leesburg, Herndon and Fairfax were the areas most affected by the freezing rain and ice. Outages in Northern Virginia were expected to increase into Wednesday night.

In anticipation of the storm, the company staged additional line crews, contractors and tree trimmers in the areas where the storm was projected to do the most damage. Dominion also recalled employees that had been sent to help North Carolina utilities recover from the freezing rainstorm that struck last week.

Dominion reminds customers to stay away from downed power lines. All downed power lines should be considered energized and dangerous. If customers see a downed power line or need to report an outage, call Dominion's Customer Service Center, toll-free, at 1-888-667-3000.

Dominion has a diversified and integrated energy portfolio consisting of about 24,000 megawatts of generation. Dominion also serves more than 3.8 million franchise natural gas and electric customers in five states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.

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