Some remain without power days after strong winds cause damage across Maryland
BALTIMORE - Crews worked around the clock to painstakingly remove and replace the 30 utility poles that fell and trapped people in their cars on Route 140 in Westminster Monday evening.
UPDATE: BGE reports 1,034 customers without power. In Westminster, Route 140 remains closed where the power poles fell but they’re working to get new ones up and have removed the trapped cars. @wjz Previous story: https://t.co/XU8wCLU6cK pic.twitter.com/lsCPLQuZRq
— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) August 9, 2023
The vehicles have been removed and people can now get them, including Jeffrey Campbell who recounted being stuck in his vehicle for almost six hours Monday evening.
"I think this is unprecedented. I don't think anybody has ever had two long blocks of poles fall down. For what they did in the time that they did it and the fact that nobody was injured, kudos to them," Campbell said.
Driver recounts being trapped in truck under live power lines toppled by strong winds during Maryland storm@wjz https://t.co/j3Pc7ZPAeA #mdwx #Westminster
— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) August 8, 2023
Parts of the busy highway remained closed Wednesday.
Laura Kramer who works at the nearby Honda dealer walked to Malcolm Drive to survey the damage.
"They have come a very long way," she told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "When the storm first hit on Monday…we saw the one pole came down and sparks flying and wires on top of cars. It was really the craziest thing I've ever seen."
Hundreds of people still do not have power. BGE reported 972 outages as of 5 pm Wednesday.
They included James Samms who lives near downtown Westminster with seven kids.
"It's the most frustrating thing ever with seven kids," Samms told Hellgren.
The windows of their house are open in this heat. Luckily, they have another place to stay.
"We typically stay at my mom's house. I can't have seven kids living here with no power. It's insane," Samms said.
He added that crews "were doing the best they could do. They're doing their job. All we've got to do is wait."
His estimated restoration time is Thursday evening. BGE said some customers may not be restored until the weekend.
The utility set up a command center at the mall with at least 50 trucks from around the region to help restore power.
"We know that when you're without service it's very disruptive, very frustrating. Know that we are working as safely and quickly as possible to restore your service," said BGE's president and CEO Carim Khouzami. "We will continue to work until every customer is restored. Know that some of the last restorations will take some time as the damage is extensive, but we will continue to work until every customer is restored and that may lead into the early part of the weekend."
You can track outages here.