For Immediate Release
July 28, 2005

Pepco crews continued today to make significant progress in restoring power to customers in the aftermath of Wednesday's vicious storms. At 10 a.m., power had been restored to nearly 40,000 customers, while some 21,000 remained without power.

Nearly 16,000 of those still out were in Montgomery County, 3,500 in Prince George's County, and about 800 in the District of Columbia. Most customers will have their power back today, although it may be sometime Friday before all are restored.

The fast-moving storm that struck during Wednesday evening's rush hour brought high winds, heavy rains and lightning strikes. Numerous trees tore down power lines and damaged electrical equipment across Pepco's service area. More than 60,000 customers were affected. Extra tree and overhead line crews were held over in anticipation of the storm and worked through the night.

Pepco received more than 400 reports of wires down. Residents are urged to stay away from downed lines and to assume that any downed line is energized.

Customers without power should report outages to Pepco at 1-877-PEPCO-62 . Storm restoration information and tips on coping with outages is available on the company's Web site, www.pepco.com.