Storm knocks out power in Howard County

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — There's no question that Howard County loves its trees.

That is, until a February ice storm comes along and limbs go crashing to the ground.

On Globe Drive in Ellicott City, Kelly Ulloa knew she had lost more than a few limbs when she was awakened by the sound of this tree in her front yard collapsing under the weight of ice.

"It was around like 6:30 this morning, we heard a crash and looked out the window and saw a tree down,” said Ulloa, “so we came out just to make sure that there was no damage. It was right over my neighbor's car, but we got it out so I think she's okay."

The damage dotted neighborhoods throughout Howard and neighboring Baltimore County.

Troopers responded to more than a thousand calls for service including 300 crashes and disabled vehicles, slowing down efforts to restore power in the impacted areas.

"Part of the problem is getting to the damaged areas, and in this particular case, we did see a lot of tree limbs and in some case, trees coming down, because they were weighted down with ice and heavy wet snow, which then comes down on to power lines," said BGE Senior Communications Manager Linda Foy.

BGE had 600 of its workers on the job and brought in a hundred more from its sister utility, Pepco, to get electric service back to thousands of customers. Even those who lost precious trees appeared to be thankful that the storm didn't bring even more damage.

"The way the tree is with the pear tree and the way the ice was on it, it just got so heavy, it just cracked,” said Ulloa, “I'm glad nobody was walking by."

Even as the temperatures start to crawl above the freezing mark, more rain is expected throughout the day into tonight here in Howard County where flooding will now become the next big problem.