Story Category: Maryland News »

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley [D] reported six storm-related fatalities in Maryland in the aftermath of a destructive derecho that clobbered parts of the Mid-Atlantic region during the late-evening hours of Friday, June 29. The governor confirmed three of the deaths were heat-related. Marylanders’ ability to cope with the oppressive heat was severely compromised by the widespread power outages. O’Malley reported overall Maryland is at the 60 percent level of restoration. “We are still bringing in crews from out-of-state,” the governor stated, noting 800 more crews were expected to arrive in the Free State this evening.

O’Malley observed that the derecho was as potent a storm as Hurricane Irene was last summer. However, Marylanders did not have the four days of warning about this storm as compared to last August when Irene came through.

When asked when the utilities’ restoration efforts will have reached a satisfactory state, O’Malley replied, “I’m not satisfied until every home is restored.”

Unlike Irene, when Calvert and St. Mary’s counties bore the worst, Southern Maryland—with the exception of Charles County and the Twin Beach area of Calvert County—has seen its restoration percentages well above the state average.

As of 12:30 p.m. Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) reported 92 percent of the customers who lost electricity have had power restored. Charles County still has 3,708 outages, Southern Prince George’s has 503 customers still out, 127 St. Mary’s customers are still without electric and Calvert is down to 118 SMECO customers without power. Just fewer than 700 customers in BGE’s Calvert territory are still awaiting power restoration.

Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com