The number of BGE customers in Harford County without power is rapidly decreasing, as the number of outages had been reduced from more than 6,800 Sunday night to more than 4,600 by Monday afternoon.
Richard Yost, a BGE spokesperson, said shortly before 12:15 p.m. that “just over” 4,600 Harford customers still did not have power. The utility still expects to have power fully restored to all of its Central Maryland customers by the middle of this week, according to Yost.
As of 5:30 a.m. Monday, the BGE online outage map showed the greatest concentrations of outages were in the Bel Air South area and an area between Aberdeen and Havre de Grace; however, there were small numbers of outages scattered all around the county.
There are more than 103,000 BGE customers in Harford, according to spokesperson Jarrett Carter. The Harford service area includes the western, central and southern parts of the county.
Carter said Sunday night that much of the midweek restoration goal depends on how quickly fallen trees and debris can be removed, especially in rural and hard-hit areas of the Baltimore region.
The utility has brought in crews from states such as Illinois, Florida and Georgia to assist, and more workers from the Midwestern U.S. and Canada are expected to arrive Monday, according to a press release from BGE.
Outages and fallen wires can be reported to BGE by calling 1-877-778-2222, online at https://www.bge.com, or via a mobile device, according to the release. Delmarva Power customers should call 1-800-898-8042 to report outages, according to the utility website.
One Delmarva Power customer in its northeastern Harford service area, which has about 5,300 customers, still did not have power Monday afternoon, according to utility spokesperson Ben Armstrong.
“The customer is aware,” Armstrong said around 12:45 p.m. “We are working it and should have them on some time this afternoon.”
Armstrong declined to give the customer’s location, citing privacy rules, but he said the issue involved an affected service line running from the utility pole to the customer.
Havre de Grace Elementary School was closed Monday because of the “continuing power failure,” according to a notice posted on the Harford County Public Schools website.
Power had been restored to the school as of late Monday morning, and all other public schools in Harford opened as scheduled, Jillian Lader, manager of communications for Harford County Public Schools, wrote in an email.
Power restoration in the region has been hampered by trees that fell on power lines and across roads.
All county-maintained roads in Harford were open as of 6:30 a.m. Monday, except Alexis Drive in Joppa; Hanson Road, which serves Joppa and Edgewood, had a “partial closure,” according to a post on the Harford County DPW Bureau of Highway Engineering page on Facebook.
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The Churchville Recreation Center’s Level Building on Route 155 and Swan Harbor Farm in Havre de Grace were closed as of Monday morning because of power failures. The Aberdeen Senior Activity Center was closed because of damage to the roof from a fallen tree, according to the Harford County website.
County highway crews have been working alongside BGE crews to reopen roads once BGE has cleared fallen power lines, Cindy Mumby, county government spokesperson, said Monday morning.
“I know the county executive appreciates the work of the first responders and our DPW highway crews who have been dealing with Winter Storm Riley and its aftermath on behalf of our citizens,” Mumby said.
This story has been updated from an earlier version.