100 Crews Were Held Prior to Storm - More on the Way

Washington , D.C. - Pepco crews have restored power to nearly 12,000 customers and are working to return service to some 60,000 customers without electric service. This afternoon's fast moving storm that packed winds of up to 60 miles an hour swept mainly through the heart of the District of Columbia and into Prince George's County.

The violent storm struck a significant blow leaving tens of thousands of people in the entire Washington Metropolitan Region without electric service. The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for eastern Prince George's County and Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

As of 6 p.m., some 60,000 customers remained without power. Most of the outages, about 55,000 are in Prince George's County, 1,600 in Montgomery County and more than 3,500 in the District of Columbia.

"We saw the storm coming, held our crews and therefore had 100 crews on the streets within moments of the storm ending," said Thomas Graham, President, Pepco Region.

Pepco is asking for mutual assistance crews to help with the restoration effort. Customers can expect to experience multiple outages as crews work on sections of the electric system restoring power, and as additional storms move through the area. The National Weather Service expects those storms to remain in the area until 8 p.m.

• Customers should call 1-877-PEPCO-62 (1-877-737-2662) for outages and downed wires
• That outage reporting number can handle up to 100,000 calls per hour, and was instituted to respond to unusually large numbers of outages, like those caused by today's storm.
• Safety Messages
• Stay away from downed power lines
• Stay away from standing water and wet areas
• Keep children and pets inside

Our restoration process is as follows:

1) Life Threatening Emergencies / Assist Fire/Police

2) Transmission & Sub-Transmission Events - Typically restores several thousands of customers.

3) Distribution Feeder Lockouts - Typically restores 800-2,000 each.

4) Vicinity & Grouped Outages - Typically restores several dozen to a hundred customers.

5) Individual Outages - One or two restorations each.

To protect your home and belongings if the power is out:

• Turn off all appliances, including your furnace, air conditioner, water heater, and water pump. That way, you can avoid a circuit overload and another outage that may result when power is restored to all appliances at once.
• Leave on one lamp so you will know that the power has been restored.

For more safety and emergency preparedness tips, log onto the Pepco Storm Center at www.pepco.com.

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Pepco, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM), delivers safe, reliable and affordable electric service to more than 778,000 customers in Maryland and the District of Columbia.