In the wake of Hurricane Isabel, which struck the central East Coast Thursday and Friday, University and Charlottesville community members continue to regroup, as power slowly is restored and debris is cleared from roads and sidewalks.
"The University will be on a regular academic and work schedule" today, University spokesperson Carol Wood said.
Since the storm, which forced the closure of the University Thursday after 1 p.m. and Friday altogether, power has been restored to all academic buildings on Grounds including dormitories, dining halls and research labs.
At the height of the power outages, 50,000 of the 55,000 local Dominion Power clients lost power. As of yesterday evening, 16,000 of those still were without power while crews continued to work around the clock.
"It's been a terribly devastating storm," said Kent Hill, a media relations spokesperson for Dominion Power.
In total, 2.2 million Dominion Power clients lost power in Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina in the first storm to hit the entire Dominion Power service area, Hill said.
"Charlottesville is actually in pretty good shape compared to the rest of the state," Hill said.
Even with almost 10,000 people working to restore power in the state, Hill said it could be days before the company can restore power to some clients. The enormity of the area affected, coupled with ground already saturated by recent rain, created a nearly catastrophic situation.
"It was a pretty difficult night for everyone in the community, but from the University's perspective, it went about as well as could be expected because of all the prior planning and early action that was taken to get ready for the hurricane," Wood said.
University dining and housing services prepared for the storm ahead of time, as did University Facilities Management, which started work as early as last Monday.
For Facilities Management, water damage is the chief concern, though sandbagging prevented a lot of potential damage. The Physics Building was the worst hit by water damage, said Robert H. Carman, superintendent ofFacilities Management building services.
However, the hurricane "wasn't as bad as we thought it would be," he said.
At the University Health System emergency room, 64 people were treated between 5 p.m. Thursday and 5 a.m. Saturday, but only six of those received treatment for hurricane-related injuries, according to Marjorie Sidebottom, director for emergency preparedness for the Health System.
"We had two fatalities during this period," she said, referring to two lives lost in a car accident involving a fallen tree.
There also were three other injuries involving fallen trees -- two with vehicles and one which struck a house. The sixth patient was a City police officer injured by a falling branch.
"To my knowledge, there were no student injuries due to the storm," she said. "I think for the most part, people did what they were asked to do and that was to stay in."
The Health System was forced to run on two generators for about 11 hours after their facilities lost power at about 5 p.m. Thursday, but Sidebottom said this situation was not a problem. The hospital prepared ahead of time for the storm, and though it approached faster than had been anticipated, operating rooms did not cancel surgeries and operations functioned relatively smoothly.
The City also prepared for the storm and continues to recover from its ill effects.
"We are slowly but surely returning to normal," City spokesperson Maurice Jones said.
No deaths occurred in the City as a result of the hurricane.
The urban water supply is safe to drink, but as of yesterday afternoon, Jones said a number of streets still were blocked-off due to downed trees and power lines.
"We cannot stress enough how important it is not to cross the yellow tape," Jones said, citing several specific dangers.
Efforts have been coordinated between City fire employees, Charlottesville Public Works, social services, building inspectors and others working to restore normalcy to the community.
"I think residents have been extremely patient as Virginia Power and Dominion Power try to restore power to a number of main lines," Charlottesville Mayor Maurice Cox said.
To aid citizens in the hurricane cleanup process, the City will offer a trash amnesty program beginning today, in which citizens can dispose of trash bags of spoiled food without using trash stickers. Spoiled food will be picked up on regular trash days.
Beginning tomorrow morning, citizens also can leave brush and branch debris on their curbs for disposal by Public Works.
The majority of City schools will be open today. As of 4 p.m. yesterday, Jackson Via and Johnson elementary schools did not have power, and presumably would not open as schools are unable to operate without electricity, Cox said.
City crews continue to work around the clock and local radio stations, such as WINA, provide hourly local updates.
"Until every citizen has power, we're not through," Cox said.
Both City and University officials praised the efforts of their workers in a time of crisis.
"The reason why everything went so smoothly at the University Thursday and Friday is due to the tremendous efforts of so many University employees," Wood said.
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