BALTIMORE — Severe storms with strong winds knocked over trees and left hundreds of thousands of people without power over the weekend. Some were still without power Monday morning.
Power was restored in Grove Park around 2 p.m., Monday.
Benjamin Peterson sits in the shade in front of his house watching and waiting as the BGE crews perform what needs to be done to restore service.
"I think my power went out around right around 5:00 Saturday," said Peterson. "You could hear the wind blowing. I thought it was a hurricane or something. You could hear the loud crash, I think that was when the tree snapped on Crawford Avenue and it took out the main powerline."
He lives in Grove Park. A tree fell behind his house and hit the powerline that serves six houses. Going on the third day without power, he pulled out his generator to power up the fans, his only way of staying cooled down in this smothering heat.
It's made him realize just how much he relies on electricity.
"Completely dependent on it. I'm used to it. I'm spoiled really. Air conditioning has really spoiled me. I need it. If I get in the car, I need it. If I get in the house, I want it, “ said Peterson.
As for Marvin Briscoe, who lives one street over, the storm was a surprise he wasn't anticipating while on vacation.
"I wasn't here, but, I saw everything on my vivid camera about how bad it was storming. I was away Friday and Saturday,” said Briscoe.
When he got home, it was even worse than he thought.
"The basements flooded. I had to put towels all over because I didn't have [the] equipment to really get up all the water. I didn't have any fans cause I got to stay in this heat all night long. I'm imagining people that had to stay through it two or three nights," said Briscoe.
BGE sent a statement to WMAR. They are working on multiple outages in the area. As for this specific spot, the tree had to be removed, a pole replaced, and the powerlines repaired.
BGE also said they are working the jobs impacting the most customers. To put it in perspective, two jobs alone impact 160-plus customers. They anticipate most customers will be restored by 11:00 Monday night.
