UPDATE: 17,000 without power in Richmond area

Meanwhile, power outages caused havoc in Short Pump when several traffic lights along Broad Street went out. At 1:30 p.m., Henrico Emergency Management & Workplace Safety tweeted that stop lights were out along Broad from Tom Leonard Drive heading west.

According to dispatchers from the Henrico County Police Division, Dominion responded to the area and the situation has been resolved.

A spokesperson from Dominion Energy said as many as 84,000 homes were affected by power outages at one point Friday.

At 3:15 p.m., 17,019 customers in the Richmond and Tri-Cities area were without power. That's down from a peak of more than 35,000 earlier in the day.

In Richmond, 822 customers were without power; 3,138 in Henrico County, 4,188 in Chesterfield County and 1,357 in Hanover County.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind chill advisory in areas across the commonwealth in effect starting at 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. Saturday. Forecasters expect temperatures locally to drop below zero degrees Fahrenheit within the next 24 to 36 hours. Parts of Southwest Virginia could see wind chills of -20 degrees.

Prolonged exposure to these harsh conditions can cause frostbite and may lead to hypothermia if not properly prepared.

At 1:30 p.m., Henrico Emergency Management & Workplace Safety tweeted that stop lights were out along Broad Street from Tom Leonard Drive heading west in Short Pump.

1:45 p.m. update: Tens of thousands of Dominion Energy customers were without power Friday afternoon as the Richmond region readied for some of the coldest temperatures of the year. Wind chill was expected to plunge temperatures below zero.

At 1:45 p.m., Dominion Energy reported 23,231 customers in the Richmond and Tri-Cities area were without power. That's down from a peak of more than 35,000 earlier in the day.

Henrico had the largest outage of 6,589 customers.

Dominion also reported outages of 14,907 customers in Northern Virginia; 14,995 customers in Southeastern Virginia; and 7,959 in Southside Virginia.

The National Weather Service at Wakefield said that Richmond had measured a wind gust of 45 mph. The state had seen gusts has high as 60 mph along Virginia Beach and the Eastern Shore.

11:45 a.m. update: Gusty wind are causing power outages to surge in the Richmond area on Friday.

Dominion Energy reported at 11:45 a.m. that 35,754 customers had lost power in the Richmond and Tri-Cities area; a sharp increase from the 11,821 reported at 9:30 a.m.

The largest outage was in Chesterfield County where 16,584 customers were without power. Other large outages were in Goochland (4,381), Henrico (3,642), New Kent (3,182) and Hanover (2,271). 

The city of Richmond, which had 3,311 customers without power at 9:30 a.m., were down to 1,210.

Henrico police reported that several large trees and power lines were down blocking all lanes of Richmond-Henrico Turnpike between Meriwether and Grayson avenues. At 11:20 a.m., they said to anticipate the road to be closed for at least four hours. 

Dominion also reported a large number of outages (16,898) in Southeastern Virginia.

At 10 a.m., the National Weather Service in Wakefield said the cold front moving across the Chesapeake Bay and into the Eastern Shore was producing wind gusts of 55 mph.

At 11:30 a.m., more than 1 million utility customers in the U.S. were without power. 

Earlier

As strong winds whipped through the Richmond area, the number of power outages started to rise on Friday morning.

As of 9:30 a.m., Dominion Energy reported on its outage webpage that 11,821 customers in the Richmond and Tri-Cities areas had lost power. 

The localities with the most customers without power were:

- Richmond: 3,311

- Henrico: 3,081

- Colonial Heights: 1,627

- Chesterfield: 1,567

At 8:30 a.m., the number of customers without power in the region had been 8,765. 

In other parts of the state, large numbers of power outages had also been reported in Lynchburg, Martinsville and Bristol.  

Areas of North Carolina were also reporting numerous power outages. More than 9,000 were without power Friday morning in Greensboro, and 7,000 were without power in Winston-Salem. 

The strong winds are expected to accompany dropping temperatures Friday afternoon. Wind chill will drop into the single digits, then slide below zero after sunset.

VDOT said the wet roads on Friday could “flash freeze throughout the day and night as pavement temperatures grow colder. This may cause slick hazardous road conditions. Icy conditions may occur first on bridges, overpasses, ramps, elevated surfaces and in shaded areas.”