UPDATE: Dominion says it's on track to restore power by Friday

3:10 p.m.

Dominion Virginia Power says this afternoon that it has now restored service to more than 800,000 of its 1.2 million customers who lost electricity and that it considers itself on track to finish nearly all reconnections by Friday.

In the Richmond area, Dominion had about 224,000 without power this afternoon.

The utility says individual restoration times are available in areas where work is scheduled today and that estimated restoration times will be available to other customers tomorrow.

On Monday, the utility said it expected to restore 75 percent of service by Wednesday, 90 to 95 percent by Friday and the remaining cases by Saturday.

"The company remains on track," Dominion said.

The utility said more than 7,000 workers, contractors and employees from utilities in other states are on the job.

It continues to urge customers to call 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357) if their outage has not been reported, or to report electric meter damage or fallen wires.

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. This morning's story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch is posted below.)

2:25 p.m.

Dominion Virginia Power reports this afternoon that about 233,000 customers remain without power this morning in the Richmond region. At daybreak Monday the utility said approximately 286,000 were still in the dark because of damage from Hurricane Irene.

Across the storm-stricken areas of the state, about 91,000 were without power in southeastern Virginia, 27,000 in the Northern Neck and less than 2,000 in Southside.

The utility pledged it would restore electricity to 95 percent of customers by Friday and to everyone by Saturday. It said that by Monday it had restored approximately half of the 1.1 million out at the height of the Irene outages, but that the repair jobs ahead were more difficult.

Dominion said it expected to have power restored to 75 percent of customers by Wednesday evening.

--Staff reports

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. This morning's story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch is posted below.)

Dominion Virginia Power said Monday that it plans to restore power to 90 to 95 percent of its customers left in the dark by Hurricane Irene by the end of the day Friday.

The timeline came as the utility reported that 408,000 of its 491,200 customers in the Richmond area and the Tri-Cities — 83 percent — lost power at some point because of the storm, up from the previous estimate of 75 percent.

As of 9:20 p.m. Monday, 251,628 area customers were still without power.

Dominion will reconnect power to 75 percent of those affected by Wednesday, officials announced on Monday, while customers in areas that sustained the most extreme damage will have service restored by Saturday.

"Our goal is to restore power to our customers, particularly those that provide critical services, as quickly and as safely as we can," said Rodney Blevins, vice president of distribution operations for Dominion Virginia Power and Dominion North Carolina Power.

"As of noon [Monday], we have restored power to about 600,000 of the 1.2 million customers affected by Irene-related power outages. We are working to help ensure that our customers have power for the Labor Day weekend."

Dominion — which has had more than 6,000 people helping to restore power, including 2,000 workers from eight other states — said damage from Irene represents the second-largest outage ever for the utility, behind the 1.8 million reported during Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

Localities have begun assessing damage in their communities and will report to the state. Once those reports are complete, teams of federal, state and local officials will review the assessments to see if the damage rises to the level of potential federal disaster assistance.

The state already has a federal emergency declaration in effect that cleared the way for Federal Emergency Management Agency help to the state — 40 FEMA staffers have been on the ground here — as well as a 75 percent reimbursement for eligible expenses, such as shelter and evacuation support costs.

A federal disaster declaration would help uninsured homeowners or with temporary housing or repairs, according to emergency officials.

"We're optimistic that if we at the end of this week … are convinced that we are at that threshold for FEMA help, that I will make a request to the president, with I'm sure unanimous support of the congressional delegation, to have those resources in place," Gov. Bob McDonnell said during a media briefing in Virginia Beach.

Reps. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, Scott Rigell, R-2nd,Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-3rd, and Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, joined McDonnell on Monday at various points for an aerial tour to assess the damage.

Emergency officials said they are moving away from a search and recovery phase. Officials said nine shelters were still taking care of people Monday and that eight more shelters were expected to serve people Monday night.

McDonnell cautioned during his 12:30 p.m. news conference on Monday that the state was essentially 30 hours into recovery and damage evaluation.

"We're going to still hear stories of people that have had properties flooded, lost agricultural crops or cattle or injuries that have occurred or will occur in this recovery effort," he said. "We still have a ways to go."