SMECO FILE PHOTO

Hughesville, MD – While residents have been advised to stay off the roadways during the late January blizzard, for some Saturday, Jan. 23 is another day on the job. The monster storm is likely to reach its apex sometime Saturday when high, sustained winds are predicted.

Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) spokesman Tom Dennison told The BayNet crews were out late Friday night and early Saturday morning restoring a few scattered outages. As of 8 a.m. Saturday no widespread outages had been reported in the Tri-County area, a situation that could change.

Dennison said in addition to several “native” contractors that are part of SMECO’s system every day, additional crews from out of state have been mobilized in the event of massive outages. He conceded, however, with a major storm that is so widespread “mutual assistance is difficult.”

With the type of storm blowing through the region, Dennison said the biggest concern is the impact on distribution systems. Many of those systems are near trees and close to highways.

Residents are urged to call SMECO’s Outage Hotline at 1-877-74-SMECO or 1-877-747-6326 or go to the co-op’s website to report the outage online at smeco.coop/account/report-an-outage. Customers are also asked to report downed power lines to SMECO immediately by calling 1-888-440-3311.

Road plowing

Residents in all three Southern Maryland counties are being urged to stay off the road during the storm. That advisory was issued Thursday, Jan. 21. While there were reports of a few motorists getting stuck, a major road incident has not been reported.

“Nothing so far,” said Captain Todd Ireland, commander of the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division.

“We are making headway,” Calvert County Highway Maintenance Division Chief Robert Harms told The BayNet late Saturday morning. Harms said the anticipated blowing and drifting snow will make the removal work even more challenging. 

“We’ve had a few trees down,” said Harms. “We anticipate that to pick up.”

Saturday morning’s temperature hovered around 30 degrees, a bit higher than originally expected. “Mother Nature is working well with us,” said Harms, who added the county still has an adequate supply of salt for the weekend’s road treatments.

How are you coping with the storm? Let us know. Contact Marty Madden at marty.madden@thebaynet.com