Thousands without power amid severe winter weather
BALTIMORE — Thousands are without power on Sunday as temperatures remained in the low double digits.
More than 57,000 BGE customers lost power as temperatures fell below 10 degrees on Saturday.
BGE says strong winds knocked down trees and tree limbs damaging electric distribution equipment throughout the area.
Entire neighborhoods were in the dark, leaving thousands of people with no way to heat their homes.
Residents in Halethorpe told WJZ they lost power a little before noon.
"Some of them are out of power and they've been out all day," said John Najera. "Some just got it back on. I just went up to Home Depot and got firewood in case we lose power because we're all electric and we need to stay warm."
Strong winds wreaked havoc across the area, taking down a light pole on South Chester Street in Baltimore.
Earlier in the day, a façade was ripped off a business in Westminster
While BGE worked all evening to restore power, residents braced for a very cold night.
"Put on every bit of clothes if you have to, two or three layers," Najera said.
You can find more information about outages in your area by viewing the outage map on the BGE website.
If you would like to report an outage, there are a few ways you can go about it:
- Online, at BGE.com
- BGE's free mobile app, available at the Apple Store or Google Play
- Text message, to 69243
- Phone, by calling 877-778-2222 and using the automated system
BGE is also offering safety tips for those who encounter fallen power lines:
- You should not touch any power lines that are down, even if they don't appear to be live or transmitting current, BGE stated. Instead, call BGE at 877-778-2222 to report the downed line.
- If a line falls across your vehicle while you're driving, you should stay inside the vehicle and continue to drive away from the line. If the engine stalls, do not exit your vehicle. Stay put, call emergency services, and warn others not to touch your car, or the wire.