Nearly 26K Without Power In MD, Some Repairs To Stretch Into Weekend

Updated at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday

BALTIMORE, MD — Nearly 26,000 Maryland homes and businesses remained without power Tuesday evening, a day after severe weather pummeled the state, downing power lines, damaging trees and leaving numerous roads closed.

At the height of Monday's storms, power was knocked out to 120,000 homes and businessess, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company CEO Carim Khouzami said during a Tuesday news conference. About 56,000 outages were in hard-hit Carroll County.

Shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday, about 26,300 customers in the state were still without power, according to BGE's outage map.

A count at 1 p.m. showed 16,476 were affected in Carroll County, 15,173 in Baltimore County, 2,938 in Harford County, 2,531 in Baltimore City, and 1,195 in Howard County.

"Last night, our service area experienced one of the most devastating storms we have seen in many, many years," Khouzami said. "We know that when you're without service it's very disruptive, very frustrating. Know that we are working as safely and quickly as possible to restore your service."

While BGE officials anticipated that crews would have 80 percent of power restored by 11 p.m. Tuesday, more time-consuming repairs could stretch into the weekend, Khouzami said.

Officials said BGE crews and 950 additional personnel were working to restore power as of Tuesday.

Maryland was among several states battered by severe weather Monday. Nationwide, at least two people died, thousands of U.S. flights were canceled or delayed, and more than 1.1 million homes and businesses lost power Monday as severe storms, hail and lightning moved along the East Coast.

In Carroll County, severe weather toppled more than 30 utility poles along Maryland Route 140 in Westminster. Maryland State Police rescued 33 adults and 14 children after nearly three dozen cars were trapped among the fallen power lines, CBS Baltimore reported.

• RELATED: Downed Power Lines Trap Drivers In Cars On Busy Carroll County Road

BGE customers can report power outages online at http://bge.com/outage. Customers can also check the status of an outage or view the current outage map.