Pepco Power Outage after severe thunderstorm

New York (GaeaTimes.com) - Washington and neighboring districts of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland were thrown in darkness after a heavy storm hit the area resulting disconnections in power lines. There are reports of 2 casualties and several trees were downed after the thunderstorm.

Pepco, regional utility, said that around 240,000 customers are without electric supply. Even the Pepco site was deactivated because of the damage. The Pepco spokesman David Morehead reported that there are around 171,000 outages in Montgomery; 29,000 in Prince George counties with 21,000 out in the District. Another Pepco spokesman Clay Anderson told that due to the widespread damage no timetable has been sorted out for the period required for restoration work.

The damage has worsened the conditions as about one third of the country’s traffic signals are blacked out. The officials have advised the people to travel cautiously including avoiding unnecessary travel. The situation is very dangerous as the transformers are damaged and the electric poles have broken down. The authorities have warned people to be careful about these objects on roads. In Prince George’s County hundreds of residents were forced to evacuate when three dozen apartments were damaged by the cyclone.

The matter of consolation is that the restoration work is in full swing. The outages were brought down to 222,000 from 290,000. Crews from Pepco’s sister company Delmarva Power on the Eastern Shore have offered help in the effected areas. Crews from other utilities will also arrive.