Irene's winds have passed, but the damage to the power grid is still right in our face.
While businesses and federal agencies are trying to get back to normal this week, persistent outages have caused school closings around the DMV area. Many private residences remain in the dark, too.
On Monday afternoon, Pepco said 60 percent of the 220,000 customers who lost power locally had their service restored. The bad news: Pepco estimates it will not be until Thursday evening that every resident customer will get their power back online.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley asked customers in the dark to remain patient as crews work to restore power.
"At the height of the storm, there were approximately 822,000 power outages," he said late Monday afternoon. "Currently, there are approximately 430,000 outages. We will continue to provide updates until power is restored to every family and business in Maryland. I encourage everyone to check on their family members, friends and neighbors; particularly the elderly to make sure everyone is safe."
Even before the storm hit this weekend, utilities warned that the repair effort could be a multi-day event, and they were right. Here are the current reported outages.
Power outage update as of 5 p.m:
NOVEC outages: 4 customers affected
BG&E outages: 322,796 customers affected
Pepco outages: 52,377 customers affected
Dominion outages: 10,410 customers affected in Northern Virginia
SMECO outages: 40,092 customers affected
Allegheny outages: 30 customers affected in Maryland
Delmarva outages: 30,936 customers affected
Although those numbers seem high, things are getting better. On Sunday morning, Pepco announced that at the worst point of the storm, 220,000 of its customers had lost service. As of 10:45 p.m., crews still had total of about 122,000 in the dark.
On Sunday morning, five substations and 131 priority feeder wires had gone down.
The utility said they have some 2,500 personnel working on the restoration effort. "We've now launched our restoration fleets into the communities," said President Tom Graham, "and they will work around the clock until everyone's power is restored."
Graham told News4 before the storm that for some customers, those outages could last for several days.
Dominion Power told News4 that over several states system-wide, almost one million people were without power on Sunday at 9 a.m. Spokesperson Le-Ha Anderson said their number of outages could go up even after the storm passed. She asked for customers' patience, because they also anticipated multi-day outages.
Power should be restored in northern Virginia Tuesday. Power should be restored to about 75 percent of Dominion customers by the end of the workday Wednesday, the AP reported. Most should have power back by Friday night. But the areas that suffered the most serious damage could be without power until Saturday night.
