48 Hours Later: Power Out for Many in Dundalk

Power remained out in the Saint Gregory Shopping Center and large parts of Dundalk area into Monday afternoon following Hurricane Irene, causing consternation for business owners and residents about food going bad, among other issues.

“When we closed at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, we had power, but people in the neighborhood said they lost it at about 12, shortly afterwards,” said Kamal Toor, working with her husband Narinder Toor at Cut Rate Liquors in the Saint Gregory Shopping Center.

“We still don’t have power,” Narinder Toor said with frustration. “What should I do? Close the door and go home?”

Meanwhile, ice for sale in the bin outside the store and ice cream inside had melted. The beer coolers had been off for 36 hours.

“We have no business,” Narinder Toor said. “It’s not like I can put a claim in with BGE and they’ll pay. The vendor won’t refund. I pay in advance. He says it’s not his fault.”

The Great Wall, a Chinese restaurant in the Saint Gregory Shopping Center, was making the best of the situation and was open for lunch Monday without power even though Subway next door was closed.

“We use gas to cook,” Steven Lin said. “It’s just hard to see because it’s dark. We’ve buying ice to keep everything in our freezers and refrigerators cold.”

Although Fort Howard, Miller’s Island and much of Edgemere and Sparrows Point saw electric return by noon Monday, many households in nearby North Point Village remained without power Monday afternoon.

Also, numerous traffic lights on North Point Boulevard and North Point Road below Wise Avenue remained out Monday afternoon with police directing traffic.

In Baltimore County, more than 104,000 BGE customers remained without power as of 2 p.m. Monday, and about 339,000 BGE customers overall remained without power.

The North Point Fuel Stop, usually busy, was closed on North Point Boulevard, as was the and Pop’s Tavern, missing Monday lunch business on top of its usual Sunday business.

Kim Johnson said her parents, Randy and Debbie Hurd, who own Pop’s Tavern, had hooked a generator to the bar’s freezers and cooler’s, but could do little else but wait for power to return.

“We can’t open until that happens,” Johnson said.

Teresa Gertz, who lives above Pop’s Tavern, said without electric the heat in her apartment drove her and others to the Super 8 motel in Middle River for a good night’s sleep Sunday.

“It was $90-plus,” said Gertz, adding that she’s lost a couple of days of work because the Islander Inn, where she’s employed, closed due to the power outage.

At the , assistant chief Matt Morgan said they had fielded about 50 emergency calls throughout the weekend for fallen wires and trees—benign fire alarms set off when power had returned suddenly—and an actual fire in North Point Village after a sump pump overheated.

“We probably had double that number for non-emergency calls,” said Morgan, adding that most of those were for flooded basements requiring a pump and generator.

Coincidentally, the assistant chief works full-time for BGE.

“I don’t usually tell people that,” he said with a smile.

Power at the fire station didn’t come on until almost 12:30 p.m. Monday.

“Thankfully, we had 12 to 15 different guys here all weekend, all work full-time jobs, too, some as county police officers and firefighters,” Morgan said, noting many of the local basements that flooded were in the Lodge Farm and Lodge Forest Roads. area. “We were busy. We were getting called all over, from Jones Creek to Fort Howard.”

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