Power slowly being restored after damaging storms swept through Maryland

Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) says 25 telephone poles were damaged, ranging from 65 to 100 feet tall, by powerful storms along Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard in Glen Burnie, in Anne Arundel County. 

In the area, 130 customers lost power. As of Tuesday evening, 12 remain without electricity.

BGE says those customers will receive temporary restoration with a generator.

 As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 7,000 BGE customers were still without power.

Damage along busy Anne Arundel County road

CBS News Baltimore saw downed trees, wires, and telephone poles scattered across Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard on Monday, after strong storms swept through Maryland over the holiday weekend.

The storm brought heavy downpours, strong wind gusts, and lightning.

"We're focusing on jobs right now where we can restore the most customers at once, and we're pairing that with customers who've been out for the longest period of time," said Nick Alexopulos, a spokesperson for BGE.

BGE reminds customers to report outages online or on the app. It is also warning neighbors to be safe around power lines. If you see something down in your neighborhood, call BGE or 911 and stay away.

"It was really weird"  

The damage along Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard in Glen Burnie spans half a mile and was reduced to one lane on Monday. Some telephone poles were even snapped in half.

"It was really weird. Nothing like this had ever happened," said Evette Jennings, who's lived in Glen Burnie for more than two decades. "All the roads were shut down, and I'm thinking it's a bad accident. When I get in the shopping center where I live, I see all the power lines down, and I'm thinking I'm in a movie."

Other neighbors in this area are dealing with tree damage in their backyards. 

Renee Webb told WJZ that a tree snapped and is dangling over the power lines connected to her house. 

While she never lost power, she is worried another storm could cause the top of the tree to collapse. She is now waiting on the BGE hazard list, but doesn't know when it will be repaired.

"My backyard is off limits to me, my family, and my dogs, because the tree broke," Webb said. "Don't have a time or day when we'll get back to being able to get into our yard without worrying about being electrocuted."

Others lost power for just a few hours this weekend, including the Carroll Fuel gas station on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard. The owners said they lost power for at most seven hours, but they were forced to close their business early Saturday. 

With traffic down to one lane, fewer customers are stopping to fuel up or shop in the convenience store.

"We [had] to shut down and close our business because everything [was] dark," Kousar Chaudhry said. "It's already slow. They're doing their best. Hopefully it will come [back] before Wednesday."

Carroll County storm assessment

Storm cleanup is still underway across Maryland, including in Carroll County where neighbors in Union Mills were without power for more than 60 hours.

The storms on July 4 knocked the power out there just after 7 p.m. The homes there also use a well water system, so in addition to having no electricity, many also did not have running water.

"It's a struggle around here," Jake Albright said. "Certainly, not being able to shower has been a struggle, not being able to flush toilets, not having air conditioning. The heat has been very extensive."

Power was restored in those neighborhoods around 1 p.m. Tuesday.

BGE says it brought in about 500 contractors from other states to work on the damage that's spread across the utility service area.

Albright says crews have been on his street, but his house was still out of power.

"Not having power for almost four days now is a struggle. Down the road we see about 25 of these electric trucks, and we kind of wonder what's going on. I see a lot of them standing around," Albright said. "I would expect a little quicker of a response to get some power back on."

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said he was grateful that tens of thousands of customers were restored quickly statewide.

"We're very thankful and encouraged by the fact that even for people who have a lost power or seen damage, that there has been a quick recovery," Moore said. "These storms are real. Unfortunately, the frequency that we are continuing to see it is real… We have to make sure that we are both being as preventative as possible but also making sure that we can help to restore as quickly as possible."