BGE: 1,110 Still Without Power in County

Baltimore Gas and Electric has been working for six straight days to restore power to residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. While 245,200 have been restored in the Baltimore County since last Sunday—still 1,110 Baltimore County homes remain without power, according to BGE's website, last updated Saturday at 8:57 p.m.

BGE said that in a number of places,  the outages are isolated to a single home or business.

For example, BGE may believe it has restored power to a home based upon information from the field that indicates that a neighborhood has been restored, while another problem exists specific to a single home (a line may be down from the street to a house, or a tree/debris on a single line has caused a short).

In those instances, BGE asks that the outage hotline be called again to re-report. The outage reporting number is 877-778-2222.

But they may be in a race against time because another storm (or two) may be bearing down on the area. By Wednesday or Thursday, the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee may arrive, dumping rains and winds associated with what—by then—will be a tropical depression.

Next weekend may bring another storm. Hurricane Katia, although it is expected to make an easterly turn and remain offshore. (Keep your fingers crossed).

“The immense damage that BGE’s service area sustained this week far exceeds what other parts of the state experienced,” A. Christopher Burton, senior vice president of gas and electric operations and planning for BGE, said in a press release. “Much of the work required to restore service to customers in these areas is very similar to what would be required to build a brand new electric system from the ground up. This type of work requires very careful coordination by multiple crews and often takes considerably longer than other less complex restoration work.”

In all, BGE has restored power to  745,477 homes in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Calvert, Carroll, Harford, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

Out-of-state workers remain in place to restore the 4,592 who are out of power in the rest of the state.

Montgomery is closest to being finished with only two customers out.

After Baltimore County, Carroll County is the farthest from complete, with 904 still out of power, followed by Harford with 786 out of power, and Howard with 570 out of power. Baltimore City has 449 customers without power.

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- Dundalk Patch editor Ron Cassie contributed to this story.