Community Corner

The Cleanup - And Coffee Search - in Reston

Thousands still without power after rare 'derecho' comes through.

At daybreak on Saturday, lots of Reston residents were out surveying storm damage, escaping the heat of a home without air conditioning, and looking for coffee.

Some 450,000 Dominion Virginia Power residents were still without power, and officials say it could take days to restore the widespread outages. No power means no coffeemaker. No coffee makes it impossible for coffee drinkers to begin the task of branch cleanup.

At , the power was still out as of 7 a.m. The usual morning spots - - were all closed until further notice. At the the lobby was dark and quiet and the front desk staff trying to keep calm and cool.

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Front Desk Manager Brittany Elseser said the hotel had a generator to operate the elevators, but the rest of the hotel was without electricity, air conditioning, hot water and some phone service.

There was however, cold breakfast for guests.

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At Starbucks outlets at South Lakes Village Center and Northpoint, the line snaked out the door and down the block as residents of Vienna and Great Falls said they ventured over to Reston, where the underground lines usually mean power remains.

did not lose power - despite trees falling on streets nearby. The Reston Farmers Market opened at its usual 8 a.m. Market Master John Lovaas said only one vendor did not make it to the market.

At the Sinplicity gourmet ice cream stand, Belinda Ostertag was setting samples in a tub of dry ice.

"We lost power at our facility in Falls Church last night at 10:40 p.m.," she said. "So we don't have baked goods, because we start making those at 2 a.m. But we have ice cream." 

The power outages wreaked havoc on Reston Swim Team Association meets Saturday morning. Some were moved to a different pool. Others postponed to a different date. 

Also without power as of 9 a.m. Saturday: Sunrise Assisted Living. Verizon customers also reported phone and Internet outages.


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