More than 76,000 Pepco customers in Maryland and D.C. lost power when severe storms tore through the D.C. region Thursday night, bringing down trees, utility poles and power lines and leaving crews with extensive damage to repair.
By 8 a.m. Saturday morning, Pepco said it had restored service to about all but 7,600 affected customers, and by 4:30 p.m., outages dropped to 1,633 customers in Prince George’s County and the District.
During a briefing Saturday morning at Pepco’s Rockville service center, Region President Amber Perry said the utility was working around the clock to restore power to the remaining neighborhoods and individual homes experiencing outages.
“I think our estimate really is over the next couple days, but it could be longer for some as we start to work through some of the other issues with equipment damage, pole damage, line damage,” Perry said.
Pepco officials said the utility prioritizes hospitals and nursing homes first, followed by police and fire stations, and outages affecting the largest communities. Crews are now focusing on “medium-sized groups of communities,” Perry said.
“I’m sure in your communities you have seen a lot of power lines down, a lot of trees down. We had poles that snap. That is where we’re focusing, to really pull those trees off the lines at this point in time, fix the poles,” she said.
Getting a clear picture of the extent of the damage has been a challenge, said Rob Spelman, the Pepco’s senior manager of construction and maintenance.
“In some of the hardest hit areas, we have trees that are crossing state highways and/or residential neighborhoods where we did not have access for crews to get in and safely assess that damage,” he said.
In Northern Virginia, fewer than 700 Dominion Energy customers remained without power as of 4 p.m. on Saturday, down from 50,000 early Friday.
Staying safe during an outage
On the road, Perry warned motorists not to take chances when storm debris is blocking the way.
“If power lines are down, or even if it’s hanging over a main road, the safest thing is to really turn around and take another route,” Perry said.
Anyone who spots a downed wire or a tree resting on one should keep their distance and call 1-877-PEPCO-62. People should assume the wire is energized, Perry said.
She also urged anyone relying on a generator to follow the manufacturer’s instructions, place it well away from the house and avoid connecting it improperly to a home’s wiring.
With temperatures expected to climb during the holiday weekend, Perry said people without electricity should also consider going somewhere cooler rather than waiting inside an increasingly uncomfortable home.
“Go to a relative’s house, a neighbor’s house, go to a community library,” Perry said. “Don’t wait it out.”
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