Power slowly being restored to 569,000 in Va.

Hurricane Irene knocked out power to nearly 1 million customers in Virginia; crews will continue restoring service today.

Dominion Virginia Power said on its website early today that more than 569,000 of its more than 2.4 million customers across the state were without power, down from 973,000 without service Sunday morning. That included about 371,000 customers in the Richmond metropolitan area, and  336,000 in southeastern Virginia. More than 47,000 in the Gloucester-Northern Neck area had no electricity. (View outage maps here.)

While the wind gusts were slightly higher near the coast, winds in the Richmond area gusted over a longer stustained period, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, resulting in vast tree damage in the region, the utility said on its web site.

This morning there were more than 217,000 homes and businesses without service in Southeastern Virginia, incluidng the Peninsula. The company was reporting on its website that a little more than 60,000 customers were without power in northeastern North Carolina.

Dominion sent crews out early Sunday morning to assess the damage. The company says more than 5,000 workers are ready to respond to the outages.

Officials have said it could take more than a week to restore power to some parts of the state.

As utility repair crews began dealing with storm damage and restoring power, Dominion Virginia Power said hospitals, public safety operations and water-treatment facilities have received priority.

"Right now, we're working on critical infrastructure," Bonita Harris, a Dominion spokeswoman, said.Dominion hopes to begin providing estimates on Monday of when power will be restored to customers without it, she said.

"We cannot give any estimated restoration times until we've done an assessment of the damage," she said. The utility expects to complete its assessment by noon Monday, she said. Those areas with the greatest concentration of outages will addressed first, Harris said.

At 2:42 p.m. Sunday, 46 percent of Dominion's customers in southeastern Virginia had no power. Fifty-six percent of its customers in the region lacked power at some point during Hurricane Irene, Harris said.

In Dominion's service area in northeastern North Carolina, 69 percent of its customers -- 84,222 customers --  had no power Sunday afternoon. Dominion's repair crews were dealing with fallen power lines and other emergencies throughout the storm, Harris said. They began assessing damage and restoring power early Sunday morning, she said.

In Dominion's Virginia-North Carolina service area, the number of customers without power in mid-afternoon Sunday stood at 849,367, which is 35 percent of the utility's customers.    

Harris cautioned individuals to stay away from any fallen power lines. "Treat all fallen wires as if they are energized," she said. "That includes anything touching a fallen wire."

Pilot writers Patrick Wilson, Kathy Adams, Elizabeth Simpson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.