BGE working to restore power to Baltimore City residents after destructive weekend storm

BALTIMORE -- After severe thunderstorms ripped through the Baltimore area over the weekend, thousands were still without power on Monday, almost two days after the lights went out.

On Saturday, nearly 80,000 customers in central Maryland were without power with the majority of outages in Baltimore City. As of Monday at 4 p.m., about 4,500 customers remained without electricity. BGE says most of those homes should have power by Monday night.

The storms developed rapidly on Friday and Saturday with strong gusts of winds causing trees to crash into parked cars, power lines to fall onto the streets below, and people to be left without air conditioning in the summer heat.

A spokesperson for BGE said crews need to remove trees and other vegetation from the lines before utility crews can begin working. That includes independent contractors as well as other companies who were called in to assist.

Baltimore City extended its code red alert through Tuesday, which keeps cooling centers open as power is restored. A full list of cooling centers can be found here.

Near Beech Ave. in Wyman Park, neighbors were without power until mid-day on Monday.

"One of our neighbors was cheering while the trucks were coming by this block," said Matthew Belardi, who's lived in the neighborhood for six years.

Karen and Jack Fletcher, who moved to the Wyman Park area 35 years ago, said this past weekend's storm was one of the strongest storms they've seen in a while.

"When we came out, there were four cars that got crushed and several trees down," the Fletchers said.

BGE says there were nearly 1,000 outage jobs, which posed a challenge for power restoration.

"When we finish the job, only a small number of customers are coming back online," BGE spokesperson Nick Alexopulos said.

In a press conference on Sunday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said 400 trees were torn down during the storm, more than 80 traffic lights were out of power, and many roads were shut down.

BGE said that because many trees fell during this storm, the utility crews had to wait until debris was cleared to restore power.

Power should be restored to most customers by late Monday night.

"It's inconvenient, it's hot," Alexopulos said. "Customers have every right to be frustrated, and that's why we're so grateful for their patience and their understanding while we work on this."

Matthew Belardi, who had power restored on Monday, said the first thing he was going to plug in was the air conditioner.

He said he's grateful to his neighbors who opened their doors to him and his family.

"There's actually one of the houses right across the street here, their family's been out and they said, 'You guys come on in if you just need some air conditioning, or you just need to go ahead and make some coffee,'" Belardi said. "It just keeps you feeling good."

With the potential for more thunderstorms on the way this week, BGE says it is already preparing for more potential outages.

How customers can report outages  

Storm conditions could cause outages by knocking down tree limbs onto power lines and other electric delivery equipment. BGE asks all customers to report their outage in any of the following ways:  

• Online at BGE.com  
• BGE's free mobile app, available at the Apple Store or Google Play  
• Text message, to 69243  
• Call BGE at 877-778-2222