Six Days Sans Power

Erin May has stuck it out in her Cedarcroft home for nearly a week without power.

But on Thursday afternoon—her electricity has been out since about 11 p.m. Friday—she said she just didn’t know how much longer she could stand it.

"I’ve given up," May said.

She said her surrounding neighbors are staying elsewhere, and that she’s the only one left to check to see if power is restored to the homes. But now she’s faced with having to get a hotel because she doesn't have anyone to stay with nearby that has power. 

May has been using her cell phone to check for updates on when BGE will be there to restore power, and that has lead to its own set of frustrations. 

On Monday, the utility company gave her an initial estimate that her power would be restored by 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. That was pushed back to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and then later changed to 1 a.m. on Thursday. Now there is no estimated time, according to May.    

"I keep watching their numbers [of outages] go down and I’m like 'Wait a minute! What about me?'" May said.

Rachael Lighty, a spokeswoman for BGE, said the reason for the restoration time being pushed back may be because that area of the neighborhood was initially marked as a larger job. Once that job was complete, and power was still not restored to that section of homes, it indicated that there was a smaller problem that needed to be fixed delaying the companies ability to restore power.

"That’s why it’s called an estimated time of restoration," Lighty said.

Lighty said she was unsure what exactly was causing the delay in returning power to this area of the Cedarcroft neighborhood.

According to BGE’s website, there were 10,952 Baltimore City residents without power, and between 1,001 and 2,500 of them are in and around the Cedarcroft neighborhood on late Thursday afternoon.

But all of that is little comfort to May, who is looking at having to stay another long night in a house without power during and the National Weather Service predicting a low temperature of 79 degrees overnight.

"Trying to be here at night—I’ve tried, like I’ve waited until 9 o’clock [to come home]—but it’s too hot. It’s too damn hot," May said.

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