wires down

Update at 3:45 p.m. — Traffic has reopened on Route 50.

A strong thunderstorm brought high winds, stinging rain and booming thunder to Arlington and the much of the Washington metro area this afternoon.

At least eight cases of downed trees, branches and utility wires have been reported. More than 5,700 Dominion customers were without power immediately after the storm.

The following damage has been reported:

On Route 50, traffic was blocked in both directions at Montague Street after power lines fell across the road.
The ramp from I-395 to Shirlington was flooded.
The traffic light at Wilson Boulevard and Patrick Henry Drive was dark after power lines were knocked down on nearby North Madison Street.
A tree came down at Wilson Boulevard and North McKinley Road, knocking out power to the neighborhood.

Here’s some video from the height of the storm in South Arlington.

Arlington Police and Fire personnel have been busy all day responding to calls of trees down, wires down, trees and branches on wires, trees catching fire due to lines falling on them, wires and trees blocking roads, and combinations thereof. There have been at least 16 such calls in the past two hours.

In some cases first responders have been able to clear trees from the road by themselves. In cases where wires are down or branches are leaning on wires, all firefighters can do at this point is block off the area and add the incident to Dominion’s long to-do list.

Power outages have been a problem all morning, although Dominion does seem to be making headway in getting more areas back on-line. Currently, there are just over 65,000 power outages reported in Northern Virginia. That’s down from more than 75,000 earlier this afternoon.

Among the power outages reported is an extended outage affecting apartment buildings near Pentagon Row in Pentagon City. These outages could be dangerous, due to the loss of heating in the affected buildings.

“Our crews are out there working as quickly as possible,” a Dominion representative told NBC4 earlier this afternoon. “This is far worse than we experienced in December.”

Here is an incomplete list of locations where emergency personnel have been called for trees, branches, or lines down.

200 block of N. Park Dr.
1300 and 1700 block of N. Kirkwood Rd.
N. Pershing Dr. and Piedmont St.
5600 block of S. 5th St.
1900 block of N. Quincy St.
6100 block of N. 11th St.
3100 block of N. Military Rd
S. Queen St. and S. 23rd St.

Strong Storm Rolls Through Arlington

Trees, Power Lines Down Throughout Area