Lights Still Out in Parts of Annapolis

Admiral Heights resident Matt Lang said he hasn’t had power since 10 p.m. Saturday. He learned Monday from an automated telephone response from Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) that he likely won’t get it back until Sept. 2.

Most of the homes along Halsey Road where he lives were also without power and a stroll down the street showed dark houses and open windows. Lang said there were downed trees on nearby Admiral Drive.

Until today, Lang said there wasn’t a set time for when it would come back. He said after hearing the news, he kind of wished they didn’t have one.

“At this point we’re [going to] cook everything up that’s left in the fridge and move everything out to a relative’s house,” he said. “We’ll probably stay here, but it obviously changes your strategy. If they were saying tonight or tomorrow morning, it’s a different ballgame."

Lang said he has a dog named Riley who’s been a “little bit freaked out,” and an 18-month-old son named Bryson whose routine has been a little off schedule. He has a generator that’s been running the refrigerator and the sump pump.

Since he works from home, Lang said it’s also affected his business.

“For a while there there wasn’t an estimate and now the estimate’s five days out, and I run my own business out of my home, so no power, no Internet, no email, no scheduling—which means no work.”

As about 76,000 customers throughout Anne Arundel County remain without power, the lights are still out in some businesses and homes around Annapolis.

According to a city press release Monday night, an estimated 5,000 customers were still without power in the city. According to the release, Mayor Josh Cohen had been in contact with both BGE and the governor’s office Monday, “stressing the need to get power restored as soon as possible."

Rachael Lighty, a BGE spokeswoman, said she couldn’t comment on the specific number of outages in Annapolis, adding that because the storm-related outages have been so widespread they are broken down only by county.

Lighty said they expect the vast majority of customers to have power by late Friday, with some outages that may continue into Saturday.

"We are working very aggressively and around the clock to restore power as quickly and safely as possible," she said.

Over on King George Street, homeowners said they too were waiting on power.

Jenn Sponaugle said they lost power around 9 p.m. Saturday. She said there were so many homes along the street without it, that they were hoping it wouldn’t be much longer.

While power appeared to be back on in businesses around Market Space around 3 p.m., the sign outside City Dock Coffee said it all. “Closed sorry, no power. Mother nature didn’t beat us, but BGE did ... We’ll reopen when power is restored.”

The business was closed for the day, but about an hour later, a new sign up in the window said it would reopen at 6 a.m. Tuesday.

When Patch talked to owner Grover Gedney over the weekend, he said they lost power Saturday afternoon. Originally he was told it would be restored at 9 p.m. Sunday, Gedney said.

Bruce Mannis, owner of Huerosam on Maryland Avenue, said his business was without power for about 48 hours, adding that he got it back Monday afternoon.

“It sucks,” he said. “I haven’t had a sale in four days.”

In addition to the power being out, he said he saw a drop in sales as people were preparing for the storm. Mannis said his busiest days are usually Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Mary & Blanche on Main Street sent Facebook and Twitter updates Monday telling customers the power had returned and the store was reopening.

Shannon Walla Sprague posted on Patch’s Facebook Page Monday afternoon that there were outages around the Spa Creek side of Burnside Street, but that crews were there repairing it.

Also in Eastport, Sue Beatty, executive director of the Anne Arundel County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on Bay Ridge Avenue, said they lost power Sunday morning, but had it back in about 10 hours.

She said the staff took a lot of precautionary measures ahead of the storm, making sure there were flashlights, batteries extra blankets and towels and enough food and supplies available for the shelter’s roughly 350 animals. In addition, she said they had a generator that would run some lights and the refrigerator to keep vaccinations cool.

They also had staff who could come in in case of emergency and about 50 volunteers who live close by who said they were willing to come in and help if needed.

“We were fortunate, but we were prepared,” Beatty said.

Editor's note: This article was modified from an earlier version at 9:05 p.m. Aug. 29 to correct the spelling of Rachael.