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Vol. XXXV No.. 28
January 12, 2022
Thousands without power after winter storm County suffers downed trees, car accidents By Laura McFarland
Powhatan residents share winter storm experiences. See full story Page 3A
Managing Editor
POWHATAN – The Jan. 3 winter storm that dropped at least 5 inches of snow on the county left more than 9,000 homes without power, downed an untold number of trees, blocked roads and closed schools for most of the week. A wet early morning followed by a heavy snow was a dramatic difference from the weekend’s almost spring-like temperatures. The storm hit hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses across the region hard, leaving power companies working around the clock to restore power. At its peak, 4,052 Southside Electric Cooperative (SEC) members and more than 5,300 Dominion Energy customers lost
power during the storm in Powhatan. According to the respective companies, SEC had all customers restored by the evening of Jan. 6 and the last Dominion customers were restored by the evening of Jan. 5. Powhatan was one of the hardest hit areas of SEC’s 18-county service area, which caused extensive damages due to heavy snow, according to Jennifer Wall, communications specialist. On Thursday, 35 of 55 line crews were working to restore power in Powhatan, she said. PHOTO COURTESY OF POWHATAN FIRE AND RESCUE “Powhatan was the location Volunteer firefighters Grayson Walker, left, and Jackson Kieran, lieutenants at Company where most of the snow impacted 1, cut up trees downed in the winter storm that hit Powhatan on Jan. 3. On top of the our system. The utilities north of paid staff working through the storm, fire and rescue volunteers logged 1,308 hours see STORM, pg. 6
over 48 hours.
Shelter nurses Co-Co back to health PCPS releases new COVID-19 guidance CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
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Co-Co weighed 31 pounds when she was rescued, left, and 50 pounds when she left the Powhatan Animal Shelter, above.
By Laura McFarland Managing Editor
POWHATAN – Powhatan Animal Control is hoping the story of a mistreated dog who was rescued and painstakingly nursed back to health will be a reminder to local owners who need to better care for their animals. On Nov. 22, 2021, animal control seized a malnourished dog from a home in Powhatan after a passerby called in a welfare check about a dog that was tied to a tree with no food, water or housing. When officers arrived at the home, they im-
mediately took the dog into custody and took her to Claws & Paws Animal Care with animal cruelty charges pending. Since it was the holiday season, deputies decided to give the rescued animal a name that was something sweet, warm and cozy – Hot Cocoa, calling her CoCo for short. But though her name was festive, her health was anything but merry and bright. Sgt. Christine Boczar said that when the veterinarian office was asked to score Co-Co’s health on a scale of one to 10, she scored a one. She weighed just 31 pounds and looked like skin and bones. “She has no body weight, no fur to keep her warm, so she literally just laid out there and suffered,” Boczar said. The vet staff monitored Co-Co’s condition and started a refeeding schedule. After a few days, she was moved back to animal control, where the refeeding schedule continued. With an animal in as bad a shape as Co-Co was when she was brought in, feeding
her a large amount of food all at once to help her put on weight won’t work. Instead, the feeding regiment called for her to be fed very small portions six times a day. “We asked for the help of the night shift for the patrol deputies on all shifts and on the weekend we had some patrol units that came in as well. It was really everybody helping, all shifts,” she said. She added that nobody had to be forced to help – everyone was overjoyed to come and help care for the grateful Co-Co. “You could tell she was grateful to have any attention, any food, any interaction. She was starved for that attention as well as being starved,” Boczar said. On Dec. 29, Co-Co was deemed well enough to be sent to a rescue that will continue to nurse her back to health and hopefully find her a new home. She weighed a much healthier 50 pounds when she left. For Boczar, there were two big takeaways from this situation. One was
Staff Report Heading into the second semester of the 2021-2022 school year, Powhatan County Public Schools announced updated guidance last week regarding COVID-19. Dr. Eric Jones, superintendent, sent an email to students, staff and parents on Jan. 6 detailing recent changes made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). “These changes impact the timelines and processes associated with isolation and quarantines when an individual contracts or comes in contact with the virus,” Jones wrote in the email. The biggest change is that the duration of quarantines has been shortened to five days following exposure to someone with COVID-19, under some circumstances. Both the CDC and VDH recommend individuals should continue to wear a mask for an additional five days. The following changes were implemented when PCPS resumed
see CO-CO, pg. 4
see COVID, pg. 4
SNOW DAYS
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Charly Morgan, shown left, enjoys playing in the ‘magic snow dust’ at her home in Powhatan. Above, Magdalena, Everett, Thomas and Charles Maine have fun in the snow in Powhatan. See more photos Page 8A.