Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The Bethesda location was one of three stops on Brown's tour after Hurricane Irene.
Pepco officials detailed their power restoration efforts in the wake of Hurricane Irene as Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown visited the Pepco Control Center in Bethesda Tuesday. Brown's visit was part of a planned multi-city tour that included Odenton and Greenbelt. Brown met with Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett, Pepco President Thomas Graham, Maryland Emergency Management Administration representative Mark Demski and dozens of other Pepco officials and employees. Hurricane Irene left approximately 220,000 Pepco customers without power in Maryland and Washington, D.C., including more than 100,000 in Prince George’s County alone. As of Tuesday afternoon, Pepco has been able to restore power to close to 210,000 customers. “I feel very…
Monday, August 29, 2011
Power has been restored at the school following Hurricane Irene.
Update, 9p.m.: Power has been restored at Bradley Hills Elementary and the school will open Tuesday morning, according to MCPS. Harmony Hills Elementary has also been restored. Woodlin Elementary is the only remaining school without power. Original Post: Bradley Hills Elementary School, which remained closed Monday as most county schools re-opened for the year, is still without power following Hurricane Irene. Montgomery County Public Schools will announce whether the school will open tomorrow by 6a.m. Tuesday. It's among three county schools still in the dark, along with Woodlin Elementary and Harmony Hills Elementary. Chevy Chase Elementary, Highland View Elementary, Piney Branch Elementary and Francis Scott Key Middle schools were …
Gov. Martin O’Malley says some residents may be in the dark for days.
More than 450,000 households in Maryland remained without power 35 hours after peak rain and winds from Hurricane Irene hit the state, and the Baltimore area could experience outages until Friday, officials said Monday. “We have not stopped working since the storm hit,” Gov. Martin O'Malley said from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency’s Reisterstown headquarters. But many remained in the dark. "There are some people who are going to be without electricity for a long period of time—several days,” he said. “We will try our best to give you better estimates so you can make accommodations.” Peak power outages hit Sunday, with 822,000 homes' electricity knocked out by winds of up to 65 mph and heavy rain. Wind gusts peaked at 85 mph. BGE…
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Many parts of Maryland were spared the brunt of Irene, but some properties still had damage.
Now it's time for the cleanup. Maryland avoided a direct hit from Hurricane Irene, which means a lot of folks will be clearing tree limbs from yards and raking leaves. But some property owners may have suffered damage, whether it is to a home or vehicle. Whether your insurance will pay for repairs all depends on your coverage. Many homeowner policies even pay for tree removal from yards. But most do not cover the damages from flooding. The Maryland Insurance Administration strongly suggests that you take these steps to determine IF you have coverage for hurricane damage and how to get payments. No agency is just going to write you a check. You will need to arm yourself with information and support your claim. 1.) Contact your insurance …
Restaurants take to social media to invite in diners.
Many downtown Bethesda restaurants took to social media Sunday morning to alert diners they were open for business. “In the words of Barry Manilow, 'I made it through the rain,'" tweeted @NYDeliBethesda, the Twitter account for Uptown Deli on Norfolk Avenue, which has power and opened for breakfast at 8 a.m. “All that hoopla for a little rain,” tweeted @bdsbethesda, the Twitter account for BD’s Mongolian Barbeque. “We are open for business as usual.” Other restaurants that took to Twitter and Facebook to invite in storm-weary diners included Mussel Bar, Freddy’s Lobster and Clams, Yamas Mediterranean Grill and Redwood. Redwood opened for brunch at 11 a.m. and was serving – what else? – hurricanes. In the downtown Bethesda ZIP code of 20814…
The clouds are clearing, and stores are opening back up.
Update (Sunday, Aug. 28, 2:50 p.m.): Pepco is reporting only 735 customers without power in the Chevy Chase zip code (20815). That's down 1,170 affected customers since 9:30 a.m. In the Town of Chevy Chase, Thornapple Street and Tarrytown Road are impassable due to downed trees. What other streets are impassable in Chevy Chase? Let us know at laura.thornton@patch.com. We're still waiting to hear from Montgomery County Public Schools about whether or not the schools will be open tomorrow. Stay tuned! Original post (Sunday, Aug. 28, 9:27 a.m.): The clouds are just beginning to leave, which means we've got another natural disaster under our belts this month. How has everyone fared through Hurricane Irene? Email me at laura.thornton@patch.…
About 66,000 lack power as hurricane heads for New York.
Update, 8:45 p.m.: Montgomery County schools that have power will open on time Monday, MCPS said. There are 22 schools that remain without power and MCPS will monitor those schools overnight and make a final decision by 6 a.m. about the opening of those schools. Each school community without power will receive an automated telephone call updating them about the power restoration efforts, MCPS said. The schools without power include: Update, 3:30 p.m.: Montgomery County Public Schools staff is assessing the damage done by Hurricane Irene and will make an announcement this evening regarding school operations tomorrow, MCPS said in a press release. Numerous schools remain without power and MCPS is working with Pepco to get those school back…
Undetermined amounts of diluted sewage released.
Update, 5:47 a.m.: An undetermined amount of diluted sewage is overflowing the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission's Western Treatment Plant because of overnight power outages, the WSSC said Sunday morning. Generators are providing some power to the plant, at 6600 Crain Highway in Upper Marlboro, but it is not fully operational, the WSSC said. The WSSC provides drinking water and treats wastewater for Montgomery and Prince George's counties. In a release, WSSC said the Broad Creek Wastewater Pumping Station at 10315 Livingston Road in Fort Washington continues to fully operate on generators after losing power about 10 p.m. Saturday. The pumping station continues to overflow as a result of the excessive rain. It is unclear at this …
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Montgomery County braces for the storm.
Welcome to Patch's live, continuous blog coverage of Hurricane Irene and its impacts on Montgomery County. We'll be providing updates here through Sunday evening, including publishing your contributions—tweets, photos and comments. To add your comments to the blog, just start typing in the text box above. Send photos to us at chevychase@patch.com or you can upload the photo to our ongoing photo gallery here (click on the photo above to do that). If you can't see our live blog, please go to http://mocopatch.coverpage.coveritlive.com and keep up with Patch updates there. You can also download the CoverItLive app.
More than 40 state agencies are ready to respond and BGE and Pepco have crews ready to address power outages.
Gov. Martin O’Malley cautioned Maryland residents to still take precautions as Hurricane Irene moved across the state Saturday, saying the worst of the storm has yet to arrive. “In layman’s terms, we’re starting to feel the first lashes of the storm,” O’Malley said. More than 36,000 residents were without power as of 5:30 p.m., mostly in Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties, he said. The hurricane conditions will be confined mostly to the Eastern Shore, but local areas can still expect 6 to 8 inches of rain, said Howard Silverman of the National Weather Service. The next six to eight hours are expected to bring the worst of the storm and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) will be fully activated until at least Sunday …
Mary Schmidt
12:18 pm on Wednesday, August 31, 2011
However I found that Pepco's response stank, as usual. You could not get a straight answer on the phone, their recorded responses were contradictory. That robocall Friday should never have been made by any functioning utility. Utter chaos, as usual. And I bet Tom Graham can't wait to get back on TV and spread more bovine manure. more ›