UPDATED: Power Could Be Out Entire Weekend For Some NOVEC Customers

Updated: 9:35 p.m-Just over 13,000 NOVEC customers remain without power as night fell on Northern Virginia Saturday.

In under 24 hours NOVEC crews managed to restore power to more than half of its 37,000 customers who lost power as a result of Friday night's derecho that authorities blame for four deaths and millions of dollars in damages.

“While I believe we have made substantial progress today, we do understand the challenges these outages have caused for our customers, and we won’t leave the field until all service is restored,” Skip Hollcroft, NOVEC’s Construction Manager said in a press release.  “I want to assure our customers that the crews in the field are doing a heroic job in these brutal conditions. 

When you have to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts made of fire retardant material that doesn’t breathe, and then slip on rubber gloves and sleeves that extend from your finger tips to our neck, it’s only a matter of seconds before the sweat begins pouring down your face and into your eyes.  With all of that going on, they still have to remain totally focused to work safely with 12,000 volts."

Hollcroft said he hopes their won't be a second line of storms that move through the area and cause mayhem.

Updated:5:40 p.m.-15,952 NOVEC customers in Virginia are still without power. Crews from Georgia are expected to arrive in the area and continue the restoration work at 6 a.m. Sunday.

Updated:3:45 p.m.-NOVEC said it has restored power to about half of the 37,000 who lost power because of Friday night's . A little over 18,000 customers still don't have power.

It could take a couple of days for power to be restored to all customers of Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, a spokesman for the company said Saturday morning.

As of 11: 30 a.m. Saturday, some 20,000 customers were without service, said Mike Curtis a spokesman for NOVEC.

NOVEC provides service to all of Manassas Park.  On Saturday morning about 85 percent of the city had power.

The number of those without service is expected to decline, but it will be a day or two before power is restored to all customers, Curtis said.

Most of the damage to power lines is the result of broken or fallen trees, but there are some broken electric poles and cross arms, said Larry Shaffer manager of system operations for NOVEC, said.

Electric crews have been in the field since the storms moved through late Friday evening and will continue to work into all service is back, according to a press release issued by NOVEC.

The Verizon outage is Northern Virginia is also complicating things for NOVEC, Curtis said.

Because of the outage, NOVEC hasn't been able to reach all their workers to tell them to come into work, he said. All line techs and operations personnel are asked to report to work.

NOVEC officials warn that downed power lines and trees touching such lines should not be touched.

Report downed power lines to NOVEC at 703-335-0500 or 888-335-0500.