Maryland Gov. O’Malley Urges Residents to Hunker Down for Hurricane Irene

Gov. Martin O’Malley Thursday urged Maryland residents to prepare for flooding, gale winds, electrical outages and torrential rain as Hurricane Irene is headed for the state. He declared a state of emergency and ordered a rare evacuation of Ocean City.

“We are fully activated and watching very closely in full preparation mode for the arrival of Hurricane Irene,” O’Malley said at the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) headquarters in Reisterstown.

“This is a large, this is a deadly, this is a slow-moving hurricane that is bearing down on the state of Maryland.”

The governor has declared a statewide emergency and ordered a mandatory evacuation of Ocean City. Officials anticipate the storm will be a Category 2 when it arrives off the coast of Ocean City, with the eye possibly over Ocean City by 2 a.m. Sunday, said O’Malley, who was joined by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and MEMA officials.

Gale winds from the storm, which will stretch from Frederick to Ocean City, will be felt by 5 p.m. Saturday, O’Malley said.

Low-lying coastal areas, flood-prone areas, areas of the lower Eastern Shore in Dorchester and Somerset counties and low-lying areas in Baltimore and Annapolis are at risk for flooding, he said. He urged residents of these areas to make arrangements to move to higher ground.

O’Malley encouraged citizens to be prepared with food and supplies to last 72 hours as the storm moves through the state. BGE and Pepco are ready for anticipated outages, but the governor said to expect electrical outages as trees fall from the ground’s saturation and power lines are knocked down.

Citizens are encouraged to check maryland.gov for updates and call their local emergency management offices for assistance. To report an outage to Pepco, use the utility's online form. You can also see where outages have been reported on its outage map.

“We need all citizens to do their job of taking every precaution to protect their families over these next critical few days,” O’Malley said.