Power outages from storms force Carroll County businesses to close

Several Sykesville, Maryland, business owners had to close shop early Monday or remain closed due to a lack of power from the weekend's storms.

Crews have been working around the clock to restore power for tens of thousands of Marylanders across the state. In Sykesville, road closures were implemented to give crews space.

As one of the worst areas hit with outages, Sykesville neighbors supported each other since the storms.

"Dead in the water"

Normally, Olde Towne Motor Company has people waiting in their office on a Monday afternoon.

But instead, the lights were off, and all the workers had gone home.

"You watch the news, and you're hoping for the best," said Vince Strohmer, who has owned Olde Towne Motor Company for 25 years. "[There were reports] some areas were restored, but when I got here this morning, I found out otherwise."

Strohmer said that he's lost power in the past, but it was never for days like his current situation.

"Our air compressors are down. I can't put any car in the air," Stohmer said. "Without air and without power to lift vehicles, I'm kind of dead in the water."

Strohmer's business likely lost power on July 4, like most others in town.

Another business that lost its power during the holiday weekend is Big Belly Deli. On Facebook, the owners posted that they lost their entire food supply because of it.

Big Belly Deli is normally closed on Mondays, but it'll be closed this Tuesday as well.

"We are working hard to clear everything out. This is devastating," Big Belly Deli's post reads.

Strohmer said it will be an adjustment when things are back up and running.

"There's gonna be two days' worth of work to try to get done on Wednesday, [on top of what's on] Wednesday's schedule," Strohmer said. "I mean, I got no control over it. You deal with it the best you can."

A helping hand

Sykesville and other towns in the zip code 21784 had the highest concentration of outages for most of the day Monday.

As of 4:30 p.m. Monday, there were more than 1,600 were without power in that zip code, according to state power outages data.

However, zip code 21221 in Baltimore County overtook 21784 by that point, with more than 14,000 without power.

Lee Hirschmann, who The Band Shoppe, another Sykesville business that closed Monday due to a power outage, said he hasn't seen his hometown hit this bad with power outages in awhile. To help, he's been getting generators to those who lost power.

"Everybody in Sykesville, we rally together. We always have each other's back. All the business owners have been taking generators shop to shop until people get power," he said. "Just get through it together."

A lot of people WJZ met in Sykesville said they're estimated to get power back either later Monday night or Tuesday night.