Immediate Release
June 13, 2003
12:00 p.m.

Pepco crews worked through the night to restore power to 25,000 customers in the wake of Thursday night's severe thunderstorms.  Another 10,000 customers remained without power at 8 a.m. today, but by 11 a.m. the total rose to about 13,700 as additional reports were called in.  Most customers are expected to have power back by this evening with full restoration not expected until late tonight, provided new storms do not cause further outages.

Pepco has more than 100 tree clearing and repair crews on 16-hour shifts. High winds toppled trees and blew debris into power lines, bringing down the lines and snapping utility poles in numerous locations Thursday night.  The heaviest damage was concentrated in the District of Columbia with Anacostia and neighborhoods in the northeast and southeast hardest hit.

Nearly 34,000 customers lost power at the height of the storm.  By 11 a.m. today, 8,700 customers remained without power in the District, 3,500 in Prince George's County and 1,500 in Montgomery County.

Pepco urged residents to keep away from downed wires and to assume they are live and dangerous.

The storm tore the roofs from two support buildings at Pepco's Benning Service Center on Benning Road. There were no injuries and the damage had not interfered with the utility's power restoration effort.

Pepco customers should call 1-877-PEPCO-62 to report power outages and

202-872-3432 to report downed wires and life threatening power emergencies.

Point of Contact:
Robert Dobkin