My power is still out and I was told it would be back on yesterday at 7pm. It seems as though ppl are taking this stuation so lightly and no one wants to lend a helping hand. So sad, what is this world coming to.

We suffered a ten days dark in the last summer. Now we are suffering the same experience again in this summer. Actually we lost power in EVERY large thunder storm. My college major is power transformation. I know the current fragile situations are totally due to the technical issues. Weather is just an excuse for our area. Could we put enough money and totally upgrade our power lines/transformers? We are living in the Ellicott City, which is the worst place for the power transferring stabilization. These issues cannot just be solved by simply cutting some trees. They need to reconfigure the power cable UNDER THE GROUD and renew the whole network , both hardware and software, to effectively improve the electrical power delivery. If this will be continue, we will definitely move out of this so-called “one of the best residue” area.

I never lost power during the storm on Friday night---Had power all weekend until 1am Sunday morning, woke up with no power..according to BGE I wont be restored til Thursday night.....also was told that my power was down so they could work on the power lines around me...they still dont have power either so I guess taking my power away was a big help......

We lost it Friday night around 11pm and got it restored Sunday around 6am. For us it was just an inconvenience but we were starting to worry about an entire freezer full of food - an upright freezer in our garage with a lot of food that would cost a lot of money to replace.

I honestly fee bad for people who are still out of power and don't have any options. My wife and I told ourselves that if it wasn't restored by late Sunday we'd just go off to either one of our parents who are both in MD and both had power.

Lost power Friday night and on Day #4 without. Fortunately we have friends that have opened their home to us, however, making the 20 minute drive home every day to 'check in' and pick up things is becoming a hassle and draining our gas quickly. Especially considering that at least half of our neighborhood has had power since Sunday evening....

I still don't have my power on ...and no water because we have a well...no electric pump=no water...I am however trying to keep it in perspective---my home is NOT burning to the ground like many in Colorado & other states out west, and it is NOT under water like homes in Florida....yes, we are sweating it out---literally---but it could be worse!

We know people who are selling dry ice if anyone still needs some- especially for the 4th of July!

We have been without Friday since Friday night. Have gotten varying responses about restoration. called BG&E an hour ago and was told that we would have power by 6:30 pm today.
Just by chance, I was leaving the house when a crew from Pa. came by and stopped a few doors away. I was cheered...... until they said that they didn't understand how we didn't have power.
I pointed across the main street a few doors away at the 2 or 3 large trees that were down and the pole was bent. I asked if that had anything to do with it.
They gasped and said that it looked like a disaster. Worst of all, this area had not been identified to them nor was it on any of their maps.
How could that have happened??? We called 911 at the height of the storm to report severe sparking. Plus, some crew came by and started to cut the largest limbs.
I'm thoroughly disgusted and angry.

Our area in lutherville always loses power. Isabelle was nine days. The workers at bge are not the problem, they are working all day and night in the heat and some of them don't have power either. We need to put the money into underground wires and stabilization. Everyone needs to relax and remember the olden days when few had anything but a fan.

4 days and no power, haven't seen any crews even working in my area. Just very frustrating not seeing people doing anything and not getting any estimates about when it will be restored. There do not appear to be any lines down in my neigjborhood. I am tired of losing power all the time. Wasted food, wasted money the kids are tired and everyone /is cranky,

We have been out since 11:30 Friday night. No water because we have a well. What is going on with the extremely slow repairs. We have lost all our food. Take out every night sucks. Carroll Island always losses power when we are hit with these storms. May be more time should be spent clearing the tree from the power lines so we will not have to deal with outages from future storms.

Belair Engineering is a full service, home standby generator contractor in Upper Marlboro. I'd like to share some information concerning home standby generators and the installation process.

If you have natural gas service to your home, most of the time we have to get your utility company to upgrade your gas meter. This can take up to 3 weeks in the best of times. If you don't have natural gas you will need to get a 250-500 gallon propane tank. We also install an 8' grounding rod on all generators.

We pull all your REQUIRED permits and stand all your inspections! You will need to have a; mechanical permit, electrical permit, plumbing permit and pass all the inspections!

There is NO statute of limitations if you don't pull a permit. If you ever try to sell your home you will have a rough time if you don't legally permit your installation.
It can sometimes take a week just to get through the permitting cycle.

After 100 hours of use or once a year, you will need to have your generator's oil, oil filter, spark plugs and air filter changed.

Your generator will go through an exercize cycle once a week. You also want to choose a contractor who can offer you emergency service after the sale.

I can talk a lot faster than I can type so if you have questions please feel free to call or stop by our showroom.

Warm regards,

Don Risher VP
Belair Engineering
301-249-0300
info@BelairEngineering.com

Since I bought my house less than two years ago I have had at least 5 outages, they dug up the line in my yard twice, had a short under the street that sent high current burning out $1500 worth of electronics (which they wouldn't pay to replace). Still without power, and not surprised. BGE is the worst company ever.

We still dont have power, just off Benfield. Pretty hot and frustrating, we lost everything in the freezer and fridge. I have to believe the crewa are doing their best as restored homes have increased dramatically. The problem is clearly higher up and more than lack of labor. Dont want to take it out on the hardworking crews, just want BGE to man up and do what it really takes to fix this!

Does anyone know of a way to find out if there is power to a specific building? Our condo is on Burnside Street in Annapolis. We don't have a land line, so can't call to see if an answering machine kicks on. Neighbors all left and we are staying over an hour away. Hate to keep spending 2 hours in the car every day, wasting gas, to drive out to see if it's on yet. Can someone come up with an app for that???? :)

I'm really frustrated by the lack of insight and knowledge by BGE representatives. When you have no update on my situation after 3 days tells me that I'm not scheduled. I can't plan. Disaster recovery is a tough business, and I know! There are a plethora or variables, especially challenging are those unknown. I get that. However, there are a set of varables that are controllable. Communication! That is BGE's biggest weapon and they are failing miserably!!! You enjoy oligopoly status...we don't have a choice. Ask youself, if we did, would we choice YOU!???

Lost Power Friday around 10pm. Still without. No idea when it's coming back. Same thing happened last year with Irene when I was without power for 6 days. I lost all the food in my fridge and freezer. I wouldn't mind so much if BGE would give me an idea of when power will be restored so I can plan accordingly. They have been terrible in that respect.

Lost power at start of storm. I had gone shopping the day before and bought $600 worth of meat and vegetables for my family of six. We lost it all, plus anything else in refrigerator and chest freezer. My entire paycheck went in the trash because of this loss. Will homeowners insurance help...no. Like everything else, earthquake damage, flood from power going off with both hurricanes therefore no sump pump...I didn't have quake insurance. The power going off is not insured for both floods, so I assume I would need special frozen food lost insurance and probably only if it's kept in a navy blue freezer with golden doors. And of course it's not the power companies fault even though we pay up the wazoo and they just pocket the money instead of upgrading and burying the equipment the way they should. Ok. I'm done ranting. I get paid on Thursday, so we can then stop eating cereal and mac and cheese. Thanks power company for all the caring concern for your customers...no wait, that's not you is it.

Wow we lost power Friday night and its still out, we've lost all our food in the fridge,and deep freezer despite our efforts to save it. Its been dollar after to dollar staying here a few nights trying to rough it out one night so the place wont be empty too long because people see you leaving and not ret urting. Whats really frustrating is hearing that it will be restored by this hour then nothing that message wa s two days in a row how dissapointing or seeing half the property with power and half without. I am greatful for family and friends but there is no place like home. How are we going to make up for this lost between gas,takeout, and hotel fees this is this months mortage I mean really not to mention time off from work. Yes I know they are doing the best but a little better communication would be better.

I think Maryland is a third world country. Let's bury the wires. BGE needs to drastically improve communication. We were told three different things on time to repair the damage . Tuesday at 4. Then Thursday. Then "we don't know.". Our street in Edgewater has hanging wires and trees down everywhere.we have to drive under hanging wires when we leave. BGE needs to improve communication internally so they can serve their customers. Jane sweating it out

Lost power Friday 11pm...No power No water!
Called to report the outage and everyday thereafter. Each time the update remained the same only able to reach the auto line.
Tuesday morning I pressed the wrong prompt for gas instead of electric and Filly talked to a person who told me eventhough our.outage was reported it was the first notice of lines down on Old Mill Rd between 170 and Burns Crossing...low and behold within 24 hours of human communication with BGE the crews are on the scene. Relief is in sight.

I don't think ***anyone*** blames the individual workers, who have been out there sweltering in this unbearable heat and humidity, working double shifts, and enduring impossible working conditions to try to bring the rest of us a little comfort. But the executives who run PEPCO deserve every BTU of "heat" they're getting from the mayor and their disgusted customers, who have endured situations like this over and over again because PEPCO chooses to operate on the principle that a pound of cure is worth an ounce of prevention. Every time there's a storm of any kind, their customers lose power for a week or more. I think all power companies who fail to plan for predictable disasters like hurricanes and derechos and thunderstorms by reinforcing their infrastructure so that after any recurring (and therefore predictable) event the power can be back on within 36 hours should be forced to build and maintain the meteorological equivalent of bomb shelters--equipped with permanent generators large enough to allow for heating/cooling, cooking, and hot showers to accommodate all of the people who live on that grid--and forfeit all profits above 5% to an escrow account held for the sole purpose of maintaining those centers and reimbursing the customers who can't be sheltered there for their meal and lodging expenses. That would teach them to "pay now" for the infrastructure upgrades they so obviously need to make, or "pay later" for being penny wise, pound foolish.

Day 5. For an ol' lady, I'm handling it as best as I can. I'm SO thankful it's not humid. I can stand the heat but not that humidity! NO matter how bad it gets over here in the good old U.S. of A., I am SOOOO thankful I live in America. I think the workers are doing their best, even in this heat. When I was much younger I lived in a tent on the banks of the Yukon one summer an you just learn how to do without electricity. But we had running water....in the river!!! ha ha I gotta remind myself that Jesus didn't have electricity.....HEY FOLKS, TRY TO HAVE A GREAT FOURTH OF JULY! :)

Cannot understand how houses in the same development can have clusters within blocks of each other have power while others nearby have none I live in Four Seasons and this happens after or during most major or even not so major storms. Power was finally restored late last night, from Friday, of course all my freezer goods are spoiled and trash pick up isn't until Friday (stinky trash). Frustrated yes, but at least a tree didn't fall on my house...

For those who lost perishables -- call your homeowner's insurance. Many have coverage for food spoilage due to widespread, prolonged power outages. We called, and promptly got $400 to replace all the food we lost in our freezer and frig. Even if you don't think you've covered, call and ask.

One of great benefits of living on a point of land at the end of the road, w're the last to get repaired. I have bought $250.00 worth of gasoline to keep our generator running for well water and air conditioning due to having my 91year log MIL with us for this week. However we feel fortunate to be able to afford a genset & fuel for it, so we are better off then alot of people. Thank GOD and a strong work ethic.
USCG VIET NAM VET. Bill

Generators can be a big expense BUT well worth it. After the last power outage I purchased an 1800 watt generator and had it wired into my main fuse box so that when the power went out all I had to do was flip a switch and go from BGE to me. The generator usues about $5 an hour to run but was able to run everything INCLUDING THE A/C. True I couldn't run everything all at once but the A/C, refrigerators and alternating between my computor and TV were a good deal.

By the way - the generator plus installation were less than $1,500.

Ron

VietNam Vet

I bought a 5ooo watt generator after the last outage. I ran a line to my neighbor and between the two of us we ran three refrigerators, one deep freezer, 3 portable air conditioners, TVs, Wii, Xbox, microwave, fans, lights and coffee maker. Best investment EVER!!!! Although it burned through 10 gallons of gas a day. Better than having to pay for all the food we would have lost.

I know its frustrating for everyone still without power (got ours back Wed) but check out the article by the AP on power outage fixes, it's not easy solving this problem. An industry study says it will cost $15M per mile to bury lines. That's probably inflated, so take 1/3 of that estimate, $5M per mile. That's still a HUGE bill. NC tried it and their PSC estimated an extra $125 per month per customer and 25 years to complete!

Maybe scale and cheaper technology can lower this, but is EVERYONE willing to fork out $100+ a month FOREVER to have power 98% of the time? What will the cost/time be to repair those buried lines due to flooding/disaster if you can't see the problem? A nice whole house genset costs less than $100 a month over 5yrs then your set for 15yrs!

I'm just saying there's no easy fix to this problem. New communities will bury their lines, and we can push BGE to improve comms and bury some lines to start this process. Regardless, that's still 25-50yrs before its fixed. Be realistic, some other tech is going to have to come along before this is solved. No cel service 20yrs ago, remember?

I'm solving this for myself by going solar and genset when possible ($$) to make my life better. I'm not waiting on the Gov or BGE to solve my inconveniences. I pay plenty of able-bodied folks to live off disability, unemployment, welfare, etc. I want my money solving my problems, not someone else's. (Yes there are plenty of well-deserving folks on these programs too)

We have been without power now for what will be a week tonight at 11:30. It is very frustrating to see the BGE trucks come and go but nothing is getting done in my neighborhood. I understand it's a big job but with the weather this has been very difficult especially for our 3 dogs. I wish they had better communications so that we could plan better. If I had a good idea of when my power would be back I could decide better what I should do (like get a hotel room) but I keep thinking today will be the day. When you call they just say ASAP but that is not a time frame so I don't know how to plan. They need to be more tranparent. If you could go on line and see where they are working and what was scheduled next etc... that would be a big help.