Thousands of residents across the Washington area are still enduring dark, cold houses after Wednesday night’s snowstorm downed thousands of power lines. Some might not have their power back until Sunday, but both Pepco and Dominion expect most of their customers to have electricity by Friday night. Baltimore Gas & Electric is projecting that most of its customers will have power restored by late Saturday.
Pepco said 140,000 of its customers were still without power Thursday evening, while Dominion had only 31,000 left to fix.
Several hundred thousand residents lost power after thundersnow pounded the area Wednesday night. The power companies blame the outages on the wet, heavy nature of the snow as opposed to last year’s dry, fluffy snow. Both companies brought in crews from other states to help repair the lines.
“We’ve seen 40 percent more outages as compared to the two February 2010 back-to-back blizzards combined,” said BGE spokesman Robert Gould.
Many residents recalled waiting days last year to get their power back on.
“I didn’t make any effort to call Pepco this time,” said Bethesda resident Pat Forsythe while shoveling snow. “I figured it wouldn’t make a difference after last year.”
Most of the utility’s outages were in Montgomery County, though residents in the District and Prince George’s County were without electricity too. The company had more than 1,000 downed power lines.
Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett said Pepco’s customer service could use improvement. “That’s something that from the last storm to this storm that could’ve been implemented for better,” he said.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley promised a review of utility reliability this General Assembly session.
Pepco spokesman Clay Anderson said the company understands “the tremendous angst” customers have when they call to report an outage and get a recording. But he said it’s important for customers to call so the company knows where outages are.
Anderson also attempted to quell any complaints of slow service: “While they might not see us at their home, we are at work in their community.”
Unlike other residents who left a cold home for sanctuary in a hotel or a family member’s house, wrestling coach David Wilson spent Thursday afternoon cutting up wood to burn inside his Locust Hills Estates home. “I have animals. I have a parrot and a guinea pig and two cats and a dog. So they can’t go without heat,” he said. “After last year, you kind of learn to get into survival mode.”
Other residents spoke of creative ways of dealing with no power, like burying perishable foods in the snow to keep cold. Larry Ekin, a consultant, said he brought his cell phone charger to a Chinese restaurant so he could juice his phone.
Ekin, who recently moved to Bethesda, said his newspaper was delivered Thursday morning. “Why can’t Pepco get its crews on the street? There’s a disconnect there.”
Said a neighbor who refused to give her name out of fear that Pepco would not turn her power on: “We’re not a Third World country, but that’s how our power system is.”