Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Pepco's recently released report on outages following last month's storm is mainly in defense of the company's response.
Pepco has released a report largely defending its response to outages caused by last month’s derecho. According to the report, at its peak, the storm caused power loss to over 483,639 Pepco customers, including 252,018 in Montgomery County and 158,210 in Prince George’s. One week later, the report shows 4,411 Montgomery County Pepco customers were still without power, as were 424 Prince George’s customers. It took Pepco nearly 10 days to fully restore power to all its customers. That occurred at 4:30 a.m. on July 8, according to the report. Read the full report PDF on the right. In the self-assessment, Pepco defends its response, writing that forecasts did not predict that the storm would hit the area hard, but “when the Derecho …
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The Montgomery County Police Department worked more than 2,000 overtime hours after the June 29 storm and overtime costs for the county are over $100,000, The Gazette reported.
Though officials say they’re still totaling Montgomery County’s storm costs, the Gazette reported that overtime costs alone for the county police department have exceeded $100,000. Spokesperson Angela Cruz told the Gazette that police had logged more than 2,111 overtime hours and of those hours, 310 were “comp hours earned” overtime, which means that employees took compensation in the form of hours earned, as opposed to overtime pay. According to the Gazette, overtime has cost the county $102,843.69 thus far and overtime pay for the Fire and Rescue Service response was $30,000. Though Pepco has received harsh criticism and negative feedback from both residents and officials for its response time to the storm’s outages, the Gazette …
Friday, July 13, 2012
Senators from Montgomery and Prince George's counties are urging state regulators to fine Pepco and BGE more than $100 million, according to a report by WTOP.
Maryland representative from Montgomery and Prince George's county are urging state regulators to take severe action against Pepco and Baltimore Gas and Electric following the June 29 storm and its elongated, widespread power outages. Senators Brian Frosh, D-Montgomery, James Rosapepe, D-Prince George's, suggested fines reaching more than $100 million for the power service providers and "wrote in a letter Thursday to the Public Service Commission that the money could be used to create a 'Surge Reserve' fund to pay for additional trained workers to help restore power faster," according a WTOP report. The senators also have opened an online petition for local consumers to sign in support of the sanctions, WTOP reported. Read the full story…
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
When a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Check out these pictures of storm damage to our national parks following the June 29 derecho. Luckily, the storm didn't do any significant damage to the repair work on the towpath near Old Angler's Inn, according to the National Park Service.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Click on the county's interactive map to find out when storm debris collection will occur in your neighborhood.
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Starting Wednesday, you can track Montgomery County storm debris collection crews as they make their way down county-maintained roads. Want to know when they may pick up the tree limbs and other storm debris on your street? Using the county's online snow map at http://www5.montgomerycountymd.gov/snowmap, enter your address and you'll see the pulsating icon in relation to where the crews are located. The county Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is providing the special storm tree debris collections -- on county-maintained roads only -- throughout the county starting July 11. Crews will follow the county's 217 snow plow routes to pick up tree debris located within the county right-of-way. The tree debris pickup is a special one-time …
Monday, July 9, 2012
Montgomery County Council president is harshly critical of Pepco response to June 29 storm. What do you think of his comments?
After almost 10 days of power outages amid a crippling heatwave, Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner says he’s fed up. In a statement released Monday, Berliner lambasted Pepco for its response to the June 29 derecho storm that left as many as 443,000 area residents without power, some up to a week or more. “Our residents have had enough,” Berliner said in a written statement following a press conference. “While this was a big storm and outages are to be expected, Pepco’s performance – on every level – was unacceptable. The length of the outages. The appalling communications. The computer glitches and data discrepancies. The list can go on and on.” Berliner’s suggestions to improve Montgomery County’s power source include: “…
Check out this great Rockville Patch story about a YouTube video song that went viral as musicians play in the dark.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Potomac residences and public areas are covered in storm debris following the derecho storm.
Patch snapped photos Monday of property damage from Friday's derecho storm. Upload you storm photos to the gallery.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Some gas stations saw long lines of cars over the weekend, while others suffered losses and continue to wait for power to return.
Friday's storm affected Maryland residents and business owners in different ways, but just about everyone felt the need to get a full tank of gas. Over the weekend, gas stations that had power were flooded with cars looking for both gas and ice. Jim Kurtz, the owner of a Takoma Park Shell station on New Hampshire Avenue, said his station saw a tremendous increase in drivers looking to get gas on Saturday and Sunday. “We had lines down the street all day Saturday and Sunday,” he said. “We usually use around four tankers of gas (8,800 gallons each) during the week, and last week we used six.” Kurtz said the station ran out of gas on Saturday by around 6 p.m., was refueled Sunday morning and ran out again by Sunday night. He says he has …
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Tips from an insurance agent on claiming losses.
For thousands of Montgomery County residents, the process of making insurance claims now begins. According to State Farm Spokeswoman Anna Bryant, the agency has received more than 2,180 property claims and approximately 260 automobile claims in Maryland. Barbara Slacum, an insurance agent with the State Farm Agency owned by Joyce Gladstone on Main Street in Upper Marlboro, said she received numerous calls from residents Monday, most of which were inquiries about deductibles and what damage was covered under their policies. “One resident called because trees fell down in his backyard and he wanted State Farm to replace the trees,” Slacum said, “but it wasn’t something that was covered.” A number of people called in to claim wind damage to …
Jim Burnetti
7:22 pm on Thursday, August 2, 2012
Did they post the assessment on their web site, where they posted the totally unreliable information about how they were addressing the outage? While out of state workers were on a pole in front of my house, their web site said the cause of my outage was not assessed, unknown. more ›