Lights out at my restaurant, again September 9, 2012

Earlier yesterday afternoon Xiao told me that there was a tornado warning for this area. I immediately knew it was a bad news because there might be a power outage at my restaurant in Falls Church.

Sure enough, my head chef called.

I told him to wait and I called Dominion Virginia Power.

No estimate of when the power will be back.

An hour passed and another one of my staff called.

I told her to wait because power may be restored soon.

For sure, I said to myself, that it wasn’t that bad this time compared to the BIG storm we had in late June. Just a mere 10 weeks ago, we had to close our restaurant for two days at a great loss because Dominion Virginia couldn’t restore power fast enough after the big storm in our area. That same storm knocked out power at my home for almost 5 days. Many had to suffer longer still.

I then called Dominion for an update and there was still no estimate of when the power will be back on.

Another hour passed and my staff called again because it’s getting dark now. Well, I had no other option but to let them go home.

Can I ask Dominion for the lost revenue? Why can’t Dominion buries the lines underground? If not all the lines but the lines in the most vulnerable area? Dominion should have some statistics to show whether it is cost effective to replace these lines on a long term basis.

Well, if Dominion has to pay penalties, they will find enough incentive to get it done.

The lights were out for a total of about 17 hours.

Trader Joe’s, 7-11, Sunoco and Ledo’s Pizza at our shopping center suffered the black out like we did. I wonder how much money we all have lost due to the storm.

看來我們也得靠天吃飯！