July 6, 2005
Thousands of people still did not have power by Wednesday afternoon and the damage was too much for Charlottesville crews to handle on their own.
"We've had crews from northern Virginia, east Richmond, West Broad, Midlothian and then the local crews around Charlottesville working, some through the night and most of us came up this morning," said Robby Harlow Supervisor for Dominion Power.
Concentrated areas around the university and pockets of neighborhoods all over Charlottesville lost power, like Wendy Bazelak who lives on Carlton Road.
"We were down 28 hours and we got it back at 3:46," said Bazelak. "I mean I couldn't sleep that good. I had to put a cold wrap around my neck just to get to sleep. It was so humid. It was really bad."
Lights and power were out for over 16,000 people last night. Candles and flashlights lit the room, but there wasn't much people could do about the heat.
Bazelak and her husband ironically spent the afternoon installing an air conditioner.
"He was in the middle installing it and all so and then our power went back on. I said oh thank God now my house is cooling down," Bazelak said.
Businesses, especially those on the corner, lost money because they had to close their doors.
"It affects us a lot because we lost the whole dinner last night and lunch today and hopefully we'll get a little dinner tonight if we can open back up," said Harry Horner, manager of Mellow Mushroom.
And open-up it did, in fact they were very busy Wednesday night. As for the rest of the corner, crews had power running by early evening.
