Community Corner

Some Catonsville Residents Still Without Power, New Outages Reported

BGE said that by Friday night the number of outages would drop to less than 1 percent of customers.

For thousands of who lost power after Hurricane Irene, one or two days without electricity was simply an inconvenience.

But for those who still don't have power as of Friday afternoon, the outages have begun to take their toll.

To add insult to injury, many customers who had power restored or who never lost power were in the dark Thursday evening into Friday morning.

Find out what's happening in Catonsvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Rachael Lighty, a spokeswoman for BGE, said tree debris fell onto an aerial feeder cable last night, causing more outages.

Such outages could continue in the next few weeks, she said, because so many trees sustained damage. 

Find out what's happening in Catonsvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Cherrydell Road resident Regina Holten got her power back for the first time Thursday night.

"Lately I've felt like I reside in the land that time forgot," she wrote in an e-mail.

All this week, neighbors have been banding together to help each other, Holten said. She coped this week by reading by candlelight and eating dinner out at a nearby Subway.

On Tuesday, some of her neighbors, who also had no power, had a fire pit and roasted marshmallows to pass the time.

On Beechwood Avenue, a handful of homes were still without power Friday afternoon.

Resident Joan Plisko said her family would not have survived the week if it weren't for the support of neighbors who fed them and offered facilities for showering. She said she used a generator for light at night and to keep the refrigerator going.

A massive falled tree blocked the road for several days before being cleared and a power line was still down, laying on the street. Plisko said BGE told her she should have power by Friday at 11:30 p.m.

"I'm not really that hopeful," she said.

She said she was prepared for an outage of a day or two, but not the whole week.

"We re-strategized in the middle of the week," she said.

The family lost power after Hurricane Isabel in 2003, which prompted the generator purchase.

"It's what we have to go through. I'm not angry. I'm not mad," she said. "But absolutely there are some inefficiencies."


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