GLENELG, Md. — Neighbors in western Howard County spent days without power, and for those on well water systems, without running water, after storms caused widespread damage across the Baltimore region.
Paul Boyce, reached out to WMAR-2 News' Blair Sabol, once the estimated restoration time by BGE showed more than 12 hours on Sunday. The longest he can recall it taking was half that time.
Western Howard County residents without power, water for days
"We were expecting maybe two hours, three hours maximum for it to come back on. It wasn't that intense of a storm, at least we thought it wasn't initially, but time is proving otherwise," he said.
Driving through the area, there appeared to be at least one tree down on nearly every property. A tree across from Glenelg High School split in half after being struck by lightning and took down power lines. This prompted a large BGE response, according to Lowe.
"We really got our hopes up," he said. "We were thinking. You know, oh, OK, well, after they finish there, they'll probably move on to our neighborhood."
They did see a crew on Sunday, which left before the power was restored. The BGE app then updated the estimated restoration time to 11p.m. Monday.
"It's very frustrating. It's disheartening. We feel somewhat forgotten in terms of the response that we're getting from BGE on the issue," neighbor Greg Lowe said.
BGE could not comment on a specific case but said estimated restoration times can change due to a number of factors, including the complexity of work and incoming thunderstorms or high winds, such as was the case on Sunday night.
For residents on well water systems, the outage created an additional hardship.
"We're on wells out here, so we don't have running water, so you can survive four or five hours without running water without much issue, but when it gets to this duration, it's a real challenge," Lowe said.
"A lot of families have their parents living with them, young children, pets, and so on," Boyce said.
Affected residents could visit the Gary J. Arthur Community Center to get extra water, take a hot shower, or charge electronic devices.
"While that's helpful, it's not practical for everyone," Lowe said.
A tree hanging on a nearby power line was later identified as the main cause of the outage. Crews showed on Monday afternoon and were able to restore power by 5 p.m.
BGE reports its restoration priorities begin with essential services, followed by areas where the greatest number of customers can be restored at once. During extended outages, consideration is also given to customers who have been without power the longest.
Both Lowe and Boyce noted that outages have been occurring more frequently in their area and said they hope more can be done to prevent a similar situation in the future.
"Is that an infrastructure issue? Is there something more that's going on? Are the lines old? Is it tree pruning? " He asked. "What are the things that could be done to help people out here, prevent future occurrences or minimize the duration of them?"
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