For Immediate Release
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WASHINGTON - The winter storm has caused widespread outages and our first priority is public health and safety. We are working with public officials in this effort. The extremely high winds and heavy wet snow continue to cause extensive damage and widespread outages. Restoration efforts will continue around the clock until all power has been restored. The strong winds and snow have caused significant damage including fallen tree limbs and whole trees which have brought down power lines and damaged utility poles.
"Restoring electric service as quickly and safely as possible in the communities we serve is our priority" says Thomas Graham, President Pepco Region. "Weather conditions and travel are extraordinarily challenging for our crews, but we will continue to work around the clock until every customer is restored."
As of 2 p.m. today, Pepco had approximately 108,000 customers without power. The majority of these outages are in Montgomery County where there has been extensive damage to the system, but there are growing outages throughout the District of Columbia and Prince Georges County. The combination of high wind gusts and the accumulation of snow are making restoration efforts extremely difficult. This is going to be a multiple day event and we are working closely with local community leaders in this effort.
The large amounts of snow are also making it difficult for crews to get to the outage locations thus slowing down the restoration process and inhibiting our ability to assess the damage. We have reached out to the District of Columbia, Montgomery and Prince George's counties for assistance in getting to the major outages. Without the ability to get a thorough assessment of the damage, Estimated Time of Restorations (ETRs) cannot be set.
Pepco continues to restore as many outages as quickly and safely as possible. The restoration process focuses on restoring the largest groups of customers as possible. The priorities are:
