More than 100,000 people in the D.C. metro area are without power Tuesday morning in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, but local officials say things could have been much worse.
The storm pelted the region with heavy rain and high winds Monday and its remnants are expected bring continued rain Tuesday.
As of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dominion Virginia Power reported that 103,000 customers were without power in Northern Virginia region, while Pepco reported fewer than 20,000 outages in the District and Maryland’s D.C. suburbs.
“I would say we are fortunate,” said Pepco spokesman Clay Anderson. “I think it has a lot to do with the storm and our preparation throughout the past week.”
About one of every eight Northern Virginians are currently out of power, while just one in 40 Pepco customers are without electricity, according to the companies’ outage maps.
Baltimore Gas and Electric, which primarily serves Baltimore and Central Maryland, reported that about 191,000 of its customers — nearly one in six — are still waiting for power to be restored.
All three utility companies said they have crews in the field assessing damage to determine how long it will be before they can fully restore power.
Mr. Anderson said that Pepco hopes to have a restoration timeline for its customers by the end of the day.
• David Hill can be reached at dhill@washingtontimes.com.
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