I think we’re missing ultrafilter…and has dantheman shown back up?
Well, we lost power here in Springfield for a second or two about twenty times. Lots of rain, and a bit of wind now and then. The thorn bush in the back yard has turned into a Kraken. All and all not a bad night.
But the water went out, and is still out at 9 pm. Fairfax County lost power to all three pumping stations, and they are trying to pump the pressure up enough to serve the county. Evidently I live on high ground.
I went and found a toilet in Fairfax City, though, so I am good to go for a few more hours. Found a very good Italian restaurant, though, Right in the center of Fairfax City.
Tris
I guess no one told you the old “fill up the bathtub with water” tip. I’m on a well, so if I lose power, I also lose water. We filled our bathtub up with water before the storm hit. We were able to use that water to flush the toilets while the power was out.
My brother, who lives in B’more and works near DC, just called to tell me he has been w/o power since late last night/early today morning. And that he could not get to work due to flooding. Otherwise all OK with him.
We never lost power… had a couple of light flickers but that was it. There are some branches down, including a huge one across the parking lot. I went to the store this morning and several of the intersections were chaos. The closest main intersection to us had no light, had cones up everywhere creating a confusing maze, and the cops, though they were there on the corner, weren’t bothering to direct traffic. Other intersections were on flashing yellow / flashing red. The store opened late due to power outages, and I had to wait for their computer to boot up before they could ring me up.
And McDonald’s stopped serving breakfast after I waited 10 minutes in line for it (I was still another 10 minutes from the front of the line, so I considered myself lucky)… stupid 10:30!
Edward_the_Head lost power yesterday just before he got to test his new surround sound. Meh heh heh. Am I evil for finding that hilarious? He still didn’t have power as of early this afternoon. I haven’t heard any news from other area dopers personally.
We’ve been without power since about 3:50pm Thursday. (I’m posting this from the office.) I have a feeling it may be awhile before power is restored, because our power company, BGE (formerly Baltimore Gas & Electric, before they switched to an impersonal acronym), serves over a million customers in Baltimore and Anne Arundel and Howard counties, over 400,000 of whom are without power. But I’m in Calvert County, which is mostly served by SMECO (Southern MD Electric Co-op). BGE has 7000 customers in Calvert, and 6000 of us are without power. I expect we’ll be last in line. Certainly haven’t seen any service crews out.
What’s especially irritating is that I drove around yesterday morning to see if the roads were blocked, to see who was without power, etc. There are hardly any trees down in northern Calvert. But BGE is saying the power failures are largely due to downed trees on power lines. OK, guys, where are these downed trees? Grrrr.
There’s also a rant coming up about Michael Powell and the true believers in airwaves deregulation. Yesterday, we were without power, so no TV, no Web; radio was the only potential source of information. But the radio stations were just doing their usual thing, for the most part, until a locally-run Southern Maryland station finally got its transmitter up again. The free market at work. Grrrr again.
Otherwise, all is OK here - got food and water, no damage to house or cars, and I’ve cleaned the storm debris from the yard. Just tired of not being able to find out why we don’t have power, when there’s seemingly no reason why there should be a problem to begin with.
Yes, yes you are mean. Very. I lost power before the damn storm even made land fall. Hell I was out golfing it was so nice. They had said that they will not get power to us until the 25th. That’s a week without power. What I’d like to know is why are all the shoping centers open with power right across the street? How come the power company comes out to do thier power then leaves? Must be the kickbacks.
ACK! I feel bad for you guys… geeez… (a week?!?)
still getting ready for Dominic’s party today… woohoo!
I still don’t have power. Thanks for asking, JC. I am currently in the office, downtown.
I have had no power since approximately 10 pm Thursday, and that includes hot water. Yep, I’ve had to rough it. No hot water, no PC, no TV, no radio, no nothing. How did they survive in olden times?
The loss of power means all that humidity has crept into the apartment, making it very difficult to sleep. And residents of MontCo have been told to keep off the streets, although when I drove to the station this morning there was the usual traffic.
It’s not a letdown to me, if only for the loss of power. Other than that, it’s not been too bad. There wasn’t too much damage to our complex. Two huge branches came down, but they missed cars. I didn’t see any windows broken, either.
But I want my power back, dammit!
Someone from Pepco (I think) was on the radio yesterday morning, and he was asked why power was off when phone lines - which, like most power lines, run aboveground and are subject to the same problems - were not. He fumbled for an answer before saying something about how trees fall and hit only the power lines. What a maroon. What are these, magic trees?
Talked to my mother yesterday. They’re all alive and such. They didn’t have power yesterday, but I saw her online today (she doesn’t go to the office on the weekends, and beside that the away msg indicated she was home) so I dunno what’s going on now.
Did I miss an update from Neidhart, or was the storm at all an issue for him? He lives two or three blocks from where my family is.
Well, we made it through the storm OK and finally got our power back around 12:30 pm today. It went out around 3 PM on Thursday! Needless to say, that means so long to everything in the fridge and freezer. 
We grilled pork chops and hamburgers yesterday on the grill, then went to McDonalds about 8 last night for dinner. Everything within a few blocks of where I live (Hyattsville in PG County) was without power, including the banks–so no ATMs. I ventured out this morning in search of a cup of coffee, which I was able to find at the nearest Starbucks. They had a line out the door! I hadn’t had coffee in two days, so I was very much in need of my caffeine fix. 
I also stocked up on a few snacks and breakfast foods as well as picked up a couple of sandwiches for my kids, then when I got home and called my brother in CA, the power came back on while we were talking. Talk about relieved! Pepco is still saying that it may be until September 25th before everyone’s power is back on!
Well, I guess it’s back to work on Monday–as soon as I log off here, I’m going to take a -hot- shower (gotta wait until the water heats back up, ya know), then I gotta tackle getting the spoiled food out of my fridge.
Good to be back online! 
Sorry dan, I work for Pepco. We had 700 crews (both contract and out-of-town utilities) on site on the Wednesday before the storm. We had at least 300 more from Georgia Power arrive last night and are on the system now. Pretty much every person in the company is on at least 12 hour shifts every day until the restoration is complete and all vacation has been cancelled (which is why I’m at work now).
Restoring electric power to the customers is not an easy task. It’s also not a safe one all the time either, BGE has now reported a fatality in its restoration effort.
My power went out about 11:00pm Thursday night and came back on about 12:00pm today. That’s about 36 hours so I hope my fully stocked freezer food is okay. I checked packages and they still seemed fairly solid and very cold. I’ll tackle the refrigerator tomorrow. I just want to take a real shower and collapse.
another citizen checking in. We lost power about 730 pm Thursday nite and just got it back around 7:30 tonite (Saturday) We’re just south of baltimore and we did get whacked pretty good. Fortunately we had enough stuff that we “had to cook” that we ate like kings both nights! Showers did get a tad chilly this afternoon, I must say.
Like Medstar, I endured 36 hours of outage, and many lies by the Co-Op regarding power restoration. I wish I lived in an area served by real utility. I was able to get in some reading by candlelight, but it wasn’t romantic at all.
Hi punha! (seems you’re the only person who even remembers I exist )
I was dark for almost 48 hours, from 11:18 p.m. on Thursday to 10:07 last night. One tree in my yard split and knocked down part of the fence. Two blocks away, the whole street is blocked by fallen trees, and so is the entrance to Southside Park.
I managed to fly out of Jax on Friday afternoon. By the time I got to Balto, the water was way down in the harbor, and by Sat AM, the tides were just about normal. The marina lost power at 5:40PM on Thursday and it came back on around 4 or 5 on Saturday (we weren’t here, so we don’t know for sure.) This marina did great - people did a good job securing their boats and such. Others apparently weren’t as diligent.
There was a tug boat out rounding up boats that were floating loose in the harbor. And a lot of people in this marina were gathering up the floats that broke loose from the floating docks.
Anyway, we’re back to normal here, having lost only a little bit of food. We’re driving down to our lot today to see how our trees fared. Glad it’s over here.
I’ve really been back on the 'Net until now. We lost power for about four hours, the storm evidently killed one of our VCRs and possibly a PC as well. We’re hoping the PC problem is just a dead power supply.
Neidhart, I remember you for two things: you were the only male at Zette’s recent area visit, and your name has nothing to do with former pro wrestler Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. 
The power’s back on. Thanks, Who_me? and all of your coworkers.