Falls Church Mayor Not Happy With Response to Power Outages

It was long after Mayor Nader Baroukh was sworn in as a re-elected city councilman before he expressed his feelings about power outages and a glitch with the regional 911 services. Both were issues surrounding a storm that blew through Northern Virginia leaving thousands without power.

As of 10 p.m. Monday, there were still 2,297 City of Falls Church residents without power.

“That’s unacceptable,” Baroukh said of Dominion Power. “In my opinion, their response was inadequate and unacceptable.”

As some of the city’s 5,748 Dominion Power customers and businesses get power back into their buildings, downed trees are making it difficult for work crews to reach downed wires. Baroukh said he has also spoken with Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova about the glitch that interrupted the regional 911 services. He said he is still trying to figure what happened and said an interruption to the service cannot happen again. Baroukh did acknowledge city workers and volunteers for their response in the wake of the storm and the more than 28-hour police standoff just days before.

Dave Tarter was asleep when a tree came crashing down on his home. The newly sworn in councilman said his power was out Saturday morning and he noticed there was a tree limb in his front yard.

“Then I noticed that a mature tree had landed on my house,” said Tarter whose power came back on Sunday night. “It wasn’t too bad though.”