Dundalk: Trees Down, Power Outages Persist

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In Old Dundalk, with power still out Sunday afternoon, Judy Ashwell had little to do other than walk her yellow Labrador on a breezy but otherwise mild day.

“We lost power at 4 a.m.,” Ashwell said. “No [telephone] land line. No computer. I’ve been sitting in my car, charging my iPhone—my contact with the outside world.”

Traffic lights on Dunmanway were out as well in Old Dundalk.

But despite strong winds that had knocked down trees and branches in Veterans and Heritage Park, the historic Dundalk Shopping Center had power and was open Sunday afternoon.

Most of the northern sections of Dundalk and Eastwood, for example, appeared to have power in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. The lower neighborhoods, such as North Point Village, and communities down Wise Avenue through Edgemere, Sparrows Point and Fort Howard remained without power late Sunday afternoon.

Holabird and Norwood neighborhoods lost power early Sunday morning for several hours but by 12:30 p.m., service reportedly had been restored to most homes.

Terry Godwind, vice-president of the Holibard Norwood Community Association, drove through Dundalk and surveyed the area for damage.

"Things are in pretty good shape down here," Godwin said after his tour. "Other than some tree limbs down, I don't see any real problem areas."

Godwin lives in the flood-prone Brentwood Avenue-area, but said there was no flooding during Irene. He surmised that Baltimore City had cleaned out its end of of the storm drain, preventing any problems.

According to BGE's website, 143,299 customers remained without power at 5 p.m., Sunday.

A power line was partially knocked down on Sollers Point near the Moose Lodge. However, it did not appear to affect electric service in the area.

On North Point Road in Edgemere, a 60-year-old White Oak was pulled from its roots in Tamara Thomson’s front yard. Yet, she was grateful.

“The tree was twisted and its branches were intertwined with telephone and electric wires,” Thomson said. “We were blessed that it didn’t pull those wires down with it.”

In fact, the tree easily could have fallen onto the home’s front porch and broken a bedroom window or two. Instead it fell away from the house toward the street.

“When we lost power at about 10 p.m. [Saturday], we packed up and left for a friend's house on Cedar Crest Avenue,” Thomson said. “They didn’t have power, but they didn’t have any big trees in their yard to worry about, either.”

Sunday afternoon, with three boys and a nephew at home with her, Thomson was concerned about all the food in the refrigerator going bad and a small leak in her roof. Also, she didn’t know whether Baltimore County schools would open Monday as scheduled—and she wasn't sure how she'd find out since she didn't have access to the Internet.

Later Sunday, Baltimore County announced that the first day of school would be postponed because so many schools were without power.

Next door to Thomson, Irene Greggs, of Fort Howard, was checking on her son’s home and Edgemere Baptist Church across the street. She had been running around delivering food to friends and family in the area.

“We lost power [in Fort Howard] at about 2 a.m.,” Greggs said, noting with a smile that everyone for the last few days made mention that she and the much-talked about hurricane shared a first name.

“I’ve heard all the jokes," she said.

Further down North Point Road, North Point State Park and Fort Howard Park were closed. On Miller’s Island, numerous trees were knocked down and standing water remained. The power outage forced local restaurants to stay closed.

Also in Edgemere, Greg Smith, owner of Bushwacker’s Lawn Care, was busy sawing apart a large tree that had fallen in another front yard.

“We’ve got more work than we want,” Smith said.

Not far away, Robbie’s Bar & Grill and The Fort, both on Sparrows Point Road, remained open without power Sunday.

All available ice in the surrounding neighborhood appeared to be directed at keeping the beer cold at the popular pubs. Both parking lots were full of customers, enjoying the down time. The doors were open letting the sunlight inside.

“Oh, yeah, the beer’s cold. They got ‘em packed in ice,” one customer said while smoking cigarette outside in the parking lot. “It’s so cold, there’s ice floating inside the bottles. Might as well [have a beer], there’s nothing else you can do.”