Maryland utility companies reported thousands of power outages Thursday morning after a wave of overnight storms and braced for more to come as a second set of severe storms bears down on the D.C. area.
Baltimore Gas and Electric reported about 8,000 customers without power, mostly in Carroll and Baltimore counties, at about 11 a.m. on Thursday. Potomac Edison reported another 4,000 customers without power in Carroll, Frederick and Allegany counties.
Closer in to the District, only a smattering of outages were reported — at least some of which utility companies said were not storm-related.
Pepco reported fewer than 50 outages in the District, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties combined and said overnight outages were not related to the passing storm. Dominion Virginia Power also reported fewer than 50 outages altogether in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax and Prince William counties.
The National Weather Service predicted severe weather — including thunderstorms with heavy rain, damaging winds, large hail and possible tornadoes — to hit the region Thursday afternoon.
Pepco crews were out around the region, cutting back trees to ensure above-ground power lines are free and clear of debris, spokesman Bob Hainey said.
“It’s wait-and-see because every storm is different,” Mr. Hainey said. “We’ve been carefully monitoring the weather forecast and talking with utility crews in the Midwest to see what type of damage to expect.”
In Virginia, Dominion Virginia Power had crews on standby to respond to power-outage reports.
“We’ve had some outages during the course of the day today,” Dominion spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson said. “Whether they were storm-related or not, I’m not sure. But for now I’d say we haven’t had a lot of storm-related outages.
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