BGE Helping Hurricane Mathew Victims Restore Power
BALTIMORE (WJZ)—BGE and its support personal are on their way to the South to help the hundreds of thousands still without power following Hurricane Mathew.
Early Monday morning 25 trucks and 50 lineworkers began staging at the utility's Ellicott City yard.
Crews have been assigned to energy companies in Florida and Georgia as part of an emergency assistance network that coordinates restoration efforts.
"My buddy, right in front of his house the power line fell. He can't even come out of his house right now," said one resident who was caught in Hurricane Matthew's path.
At the storm's peak there were roughly one million outages.
"Just in southeast Virginia they have 100,000 out right now, so we're going to help with that restoration effort," said Justin Mulcahy, a spokesman with BGE.
The general destination is Norfolk, Virginia Beach and maybe the Outer Banks.
"We'll meet at their command center and then they'll give us the damage report. They'll give us an area we'll be working, what we should be expecting," said Eric Guy, BGE Supervisor.
Power companies in other states pay for this aid, although for crews it's about more than money.
"They go down with the idea of really helping these people. These guys don't like to leave a zone until they get the lights back on," Guy said.
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