We're onto day three of the "The Great DC Blackout of 2010" with little progress being made by Pepco. There are still over one hundred thousand Pepco customers without power, and Pepco stating that Thursday is the target day for getting everyone back in business. In my opinion, that is unacceptable.
On the plus side, like "Snowmageddon", the current blackout disaster here in Montgomery County will surely coin some clever nicknames, "The Great DC Blackout of 2010" notwithstanding. Any other suggestions?
In the meantime, an update on Pepco's "progress":
- Many more traffic lights on the Rockville Pike are operational. A notable exception is the busy intersection of Tuckerman Lane and Rockville Pike, where police still direct traffic.
- In my housing development, Parkside, power came on briefly yesterday, only to go out again about thirty minutes later.
- The Parkside website states "There is currently an electrical line down on the property and Pepco is aware of the
- On the Parkside Community mailing list, Jessica Fepelstein stated she saw a Pepco truck driving through the community at approximately 9AM this morning.
- Pepco is setting up a hotline for estimated power recovery times: (877) 737-2662.
Its odd, because I've done a fair amount of driving around Bethesda, mainly north up the Rockville Pike into Rockville, and south through to downtown Bethesda and Montgomery Ave over to the East West Highway. All in all, since Sunday, I've seen two Pepco trucks, and they were driving, not working on anything.
UPDATE Wednesday July 28, 2010, 12:46AM: Pepco estimated that the power would be restored to Parkside by 11:30PM, Tuesday. I thought for sure they had made a conservative estimate and would restore power an hour or two early. Its now over one hour past their estimate. I called the hotline, which all afternoon was simply a recorded voice spouting rhetoric about "big storm, patience blah blah blah". At 11PM and midnight, I actually spoke to a person who said they really didn't know when power would be restored!
The most pathetic thing I heard on WTOP last night (while driving around, avoiding going back to my apartment and the fridge full of spoiled food) - the PEPCO spokesperson telling us to go to their website to see updates and the outage map. Screw you, PEPCO - telling people without power to go look at a website.
I tried posting this on your blog:
Thanks for commenting on my Bethesda Notes blog!
I was just griping about not being able to wash my clothes and I feel your pain about having to leave wet clothes in the washer. I've forgotten them there before and had to wash them again to get rid of the mildew smell.
I work from home as a software developer and have been going out to my car to charge my laptop for mobile web surfing. Thankfully if the car doesn't move, the lights don't come on, and its super quiet.
Hang in there! We'll get through this!