Sep. 6--Anyone who lived through Hurricane Isabel knows that it can be extremely inconvenient to lose phone, cable and electric service for long periods.

The utility companies that struggled with the aftermath of that storm say they are prepared for Hanna, which should cause far fewer losses of these basic services for Hampton Roads residents than five years ago. A potential problem for the region is that it's projected to get hit by the eastern side of the storm, which usually packs more wind and tornado potential than the rainier western side.

"Typically, wind is more troublesome" than rain for the electrical system, said Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Dan Genest.

Getting the windy part of the storm could cause problems with trees weakened by a drought that has hit Hampton Roads the last couple of years. According to the National Weather Service, the Norfolk readings show rainfall down 25 percent in 2007 and so far in 2008 from the 30-year average.

"It has been dry, especially in Southeast Virginia," said Larry Brown, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield.

Utilities are moving extra workers into place, hardening key facilities and closely watching the storm's path. Unlike Isabel, Dominion does not have backup workers from other utilities in place, but calls have been made to get them here if necessary.

Dominion has its own crews ready and plans to work until the wind speeds are too high for the employees to safely work outside. The utility's Hampton Roads region has almost 683,000 customers, and its Gloucester/Northern Neck region has about 61,000.

Dominion customers are asked to call the toll-free number and use the automated system to report outages with the first option, and choose the second option for emergencies such as downed, dangerous lines.

Genest said it is important for everyone to report their outage, even if they assume Dominion knows the whole neighborhood is out.

Phone, cable companies

Some people will lose phone service for a period, whether it's landline or cell. It's just a question of how many people lose it, and for how long. Losing power knocks out cable service, which has lines that can also be affected separately by a storm, but phone service can work without power if phone lines are not damaged.

During Isabel, some of Verizon's smaller centers that route calls initially had only battery backup, and not generators to recharge them once the batteries died and service was lost. Most cell phone towers also had backup power, but the ones that didn't created gaps in service.