Locals Deal With Irene’s Aftermath

Just days after they were stunned by an earthquake, D.C.-Baltimore-area residents Sunday started recovery efforts from a new disaster--Hurricane Irene.

By midday, with wind gusts still rattling trees, clean-up activities had begun.

“We were hoping that there would be no power outages, but it did happen to us,” said Lillian Shifflett as she wiped down chairs on her porch Sunday morning outside her home in Ellicott City.  Shifflett lost power at her house at 2 a.m. “Since we got up we’ve been cleaning and doing what we can to clean the deck and put back furniture.”

But Shifflett said it could have been worse.

“Other than the inconvenience of not having electricity, we’re surviving pretty well,” she said.

According to the National Weather Service of Baltimore/Washington, severe weather from Hurricane Irene brought heavy rains, flooding, and high, sustained winds of up to 40 mph into the area, with wind gusts of up to 55 mph downing hundreds of area trees.

The storm also caused widespread power outages.

According to the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company’s website, there were approximately 473,800 power outages reported by Sunday afternoon in the company’s coverage area. That includes an estimated 35,000 outages in Howard County, 13,500 outages in Carroll County and 148,600 outages in Baltimore County.

“We’re still assessing the damages,” said BG&E spokesperson Rachael Lightly. “It will take a minimum of several days to complete the work…We have crews working around the clock.”  

In the meantime, area government officials are urging residents to stay off the roads so crews can continue to deal with debris.            

“Pleas stay off roads so our crews can work,” Howard County Executive Ken Ulman said on his Facebook Sunday morning.

There have been several reports of downed power lines, traffic light outages and fallen trees and debris in the roadways in Howard County, according to a press release from Ulman.

“Citizens are strongly encouraged to stay off the roads so that emergency vehicles can quickly navigate around the county and crews can access affected areas,” Ulman stated. “Limit travel and in the event that you must go out, drive slowly and treat all intersections with power outages as four-way stops.”

Even as the sun began to peek through the clouds Sunday afternoon, darkened storefronts and damaged traffic lights could be seen along Rt. 40 from Catonsville into Ellicott City, with police officers directing traffic at certain intersections.

“[The storm] was pretty nasty,” said Ellicott City resident Dewey Church, who was hanging around a 7-Eleven store on St. John’s Lane in Ellicott City Sunday morning trying to decide what to do about lunch. Church lost power around 1 a.m.

“I’m in trouble with the freezers because of the meats,” he said.

Inside the 7-Eleven store, dark from the outage, clerks were doing the cashier work by hand and counting out money from cups rather than from the cashier box. However dozens of people could still be seen coming into the store in search of essentials such as milk.

“Our power went out at 2:30 this morning, so we closed down and re-opened at 7 a.m.,” said store manager Sanjay Desai.

Meanwhile, Frederick Road leading into Catonsville from Ellicott City was blocked off Sunday morning due to a large downed tree that became entangled in power wires.

 “I heard a boom and then I saw sparks,” said Pam Warfield, a Catonsville resident who lives nearby. Warfield, who lost power, was watching crews try to untangle the damage Sunday morning.

“The power went out with a big explosion,” she said.

In addition, Mike Szarko, who also lives on Frederick Road in Catonsville, was out of power Sunday morning.

Szarko, who was out clearing debris from his front yard, said that the storm demolished his son’s backyard clubhouse. Tramping around the yard with supermarket bags to keep his boots dry, Szarko said he’d been up all night bailing out his basement, which had accumulated more than a foot of water.

"It’s the flavor of mother nature,” Szarko said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Some residents were forced to flee to shelters.

According to the Baltimore County Emergency Management website, the shelter at Eastern Technical High School is now closed. The shelter had opened to provide relief for area residents throughout the storm, and at one point sheltered 18 adults and 4 children over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the Columbia Mall Sunday afternoon was packed with people seeking entertainment in the wake of widespread power outages.

“We went to breakfast at Denny’s and then we came here,” said Montgomery County resident Evelyn Byrne. Byrne said she lost power around 3 a.m. “We plan to walk around, maybe do some shopping.”

Amber Siner and her husband Gideon Siner were in a similar situation, having lost power in their Jessup home.

“We like to people-watch,” Amber said as she and her husband hung out at the food court.

Added Aaron Lewis, who was also at the mall biding his time, “I guess we’ll hang out until the power comes back on.”

But like the Siners, Lewis did not seem too phased by the hurricane's aftermath.

“It wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be,” Lewis said.