BALTIMORE — More than a thousand customers in Bolton Hill have dealt with power outages the last few days, creating problems for neighbors and local businesses.
"The power outages started last week for us," Tariq Syed, part-owner of the Park Avenue Pharmacy in Bolton Hill, told WMAR-2 News.
Syed couldn’t get into his business, which has an electric-powered security door, and had to close last Thursday and part of Friday.
That meant a day and a half of business was lost, and neighbors were unable to pick up medicine.
"You can imagine - we are a pharmacy here, trying to serve the community. Open 9 to 6, so Thursday, we are not able to open at all," Syed added.
Syed and many others in part of the Bolton Hill neighborhood have faced power outages as of late.
In a statement, Baltimore Gas and Electric told WMAR-2 News that the outages were caused by 'cable splice failures due to prolonged extreme heat.'
"BGE recognizes that neighbors in the Bolton Hill area have recently experienced several electric service outages. Outages in the area were caused by cable splice failures due to prolonged extreme heat. We are identifying opportunities to ease the stress on the system, as well as making adjustments to equipment in the area to ensure proper load response as temperatures climb through the end of the week. We are increasing staffing in this area should additional outages related to this issue occur.
BGE is committed to providing customers with safe and reliable electric and gas service. We work daily to maintain and improve our equipment, though outages may still occur. If customers do experience a service interruption in the future, you can quickly and easily report your outage at bge.com, on the BGE Mobile App, via text message to MyBGE (69243), or by calling customer service at 1-877-778-2222. These reporting services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
BGE tells WMAR-2 News around 1200 customers may have been affected by the outages, but they didn’t affect every customer each time. They say recent outages happened Monday, Tuesday, and last Thursday.
"You just have to deal with it, or you can go somewhere else," said Jessica Merkel-Keller, a Bolton Hill resident.
Merkel-Keller said most of the last ten days, she’s faced at least one outage, and they usually last a few hours, sometimes overnight.
"I worry about how many zaps my appliances can take, the time it takes to reset everything in the house. I also worry about food safety," Merkel-Keller added.
