STAFFORD, Va. — As more snow starts to move in overnight, thousands in Stafford still do not have power. They're worried the storm will keep crews from getting to them.
Corrie Hogan is one of Dominion Energy's worried customers.
She lost her power around 8 a.m. Monday morning, after she said a fire in some trees near power lines blew her complex's transformer. She lives at Spring Lake Motel in Stafford.
As of 6 a.m., about 13,000 Dominion Energy customers didn't have power and about 50,000 total people in Virginia were in the dark.
“Oh my god, it's been horrible. Absolutely horrible," Hogan said.
She said she and her roommate have not had heat or water for close to four days, and all their food has spoiled.
“We haven't been able to take a shower since this happened," Hogan said. "We literally have to go down to the creek and get water in a bucket just to flush the toilet.”
Hogan also has a chronic illness, which she said is flaring up in these conditions.
“We're pushing through the best we can," she said. "We've contacted Dominion 100 times.”
She sent WUSA 9 message exchanges she had with Dominion Energy, which say that her motel's individual circuit could be damaged and that they would try to restore power by Thursday night.
Dominion Energy told the WUSA 9 team that the power has been out for so long because of treacherous roads and the number of branches with heavy snow that have snapped lines.
Meanwhile, VDOT is getting ready for round two by pretreating streets with brine and preparing more than 2800 pieces of equipment to clear roads.
VDOT Fredericksburg said early Thursday that they are deploying their mobile pretreating units at 9 a.m., and crews will be working around the clock in 12-hour shifts to get streets cleared.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has also declared a state of emergency and authorized the National Guard to help remove downed trees and snow.
Hogan is taking her own precautions.
“We should all take the time to go and prepare a little bit better for situations like this that we're not used to," she said. "Canned Goods, extra medications, you know, extra blankets. Just stuff. So I know if this happens again, everything will be okay.”
You can check Dominion Energy outages here.