Severe storms knock out power to thousands; some area schools delay opening

Two Henrico County Public Schools opened two hours late Tuesday after a line of severe thunderstorms swept through central Virginia Monday night, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes, businesses and schools.

Twin Hickory Elementary School and Deep Run High School both operated on a two-hour delay March 17, due to power outages affecting surrounding neighborhoods and school buildings, a Henrico Schools spokesperson advised early Tuesday. All other HCPS schools and offices opened on time.

The delays come after severe weather battered the region Monday evening, with wind speeds reaching up to 60 mph in areas stretching from Mechanicsville to the North Carolina border. Close to 100,000 outages were reported across Virginia at the height of the storm, according to Dominion Energy's outage map. As of midnight Tuesday, more than 77,000 customers remained without power.

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