Derecho Storm Left ‘Hurricane-Like Damage’

Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) said Tuesday morning that the company had restored service to more then 500,000 customers after they lost power during .

The strong storm, which caused “hurricane-like damage,” , said BGE spokeswoman Rachael Lighty.

“The storm was short, but violent through the night with winds in excess of 70 miles per hour,” she said Tuesday morning at the out-of-state utility workers staging area in Glen Burnie. “During Hurricane Irene we had 750,000 customers out of service … After Friday’s storm we had 680,000 customers out of service.”

Nearly 1,300 out-of-state utility workers joined the about 2,000 BGE workers to help get customers back on line. Restoration efforts are expected to continue through the rest of the week. The forecast for Crofton calls for a chance of showers and thunderstorms Tuesday night and Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Lighty said all of Anne Arundel County was hit hard after Friday's storm, but was not able to say which areas were hit hardest.

“The number one cause for outages in Anne Arundel County [and elsewhere] is pulled trees and tree limbs coming down on the power lines,” she said. "With a storm of this magnitude, we're seeing entire trees down on the lines."

Many residents have argued that there would be fewer outages if BGE would put its power lines underground, but Lighty said that’s not necessarily true.

“We have both underground and above ground lines. But the thing about underground lines is they have to come out of the ground somewhere,” she said. “It’s also harder to detect a problem when the lines are buried and it takes longer to fix.”

Other residents said they didn’t understand why the estimated restoration time would change each time they call, but Lighty said it could be for a number of reasons.

“It’s very hard to estimate what kind of damage they’ll see when they get out there. It could be that they need to repair a different piece of equipment further away,” she said. “But we haven’t established a global estimated time” for all customers to have power restored.

Lighty said residents who see that their neighbors have power while they are still without likely receive their electricity from a different feeder, where electricity is pulled from another substation.

Some residents who said they lost power after it was restored may have been taken off line to repair another nearby piece of equipment, she said.

“[Those customers] could be without power anywhere from a few minutes to several hours,” she said.

To see where BGE is currently working, visit the Crew Work Locations web page.

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