East Coast Storm Latest Update:Power up by Friday
Out of state crews and even utility workers from Canada have come to help restore power to thousands who are still in the dark in Maryland after Friday’s violent storm that left at least 17 dead and caused massive traffic headaches on the East Coast.
Pepco said they expect the vast majority of customers without power to have electrical service by 11 p.m. Friday. The company said it has restored three out of every four outages that left 443,000 of its customers without service.
Hydro One crews from Canada are now in place and crews are on their way from Florida. The crews have been focusing on restoring tripped feeders, which are large electric lines that distribute power upt to 1,100 customers. They have restored 270 of 290 feeders as of Tuesday. ice.
Pepco has mobilized about 3,000 personnel mobilized for the restoration effort.
Meanwhile Baltimore Gas & Electric reported they have restored power to 535,278 customers with more than 125,000 still reporting an outage. They have crews from 12 states and Canada working in 42 communities in eight counties and Baltimore City. So far, nearly 1,200 out-of-state utility workers answered the call. Together BG&E has about 2,600 workers out in the field.
“The mobilization effort has been on par with BGE’s efforts to add resources for an approaching hurricane, except Friday’s sudden storm didn’t allow for days of advance preparation,” said Jeannette M. Mills, Customer Operations & Chief Customer officer.
No word yet on when all of BG& customers will have power.
Millions are still without power in neighboring states including Virginia, and West Virginia. The 70-mile per hour storm came with no warning and the East Coast was caught unprepared.
“We suffered a hurricane impact without the three to four days of hurricane warning,” Gov. Martin O’Malley said during a press conference at the state Emergency Management Agency in Reisterstown, Md. O’Malley said his office was pushing Maryland’s two large utilities, Pepco and Baltimore Gas & Electric, to “restore power as quickly as they can.”
So far, 17 have died as the result of the storm and the aftermath of it, including seven confirmed cases in Maryland, officials said.
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