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Thousands Of Marylanders Are Still Without Power

BALTIMORE (WJZ)— Thousands of people are going to bed without power for the third or fourth night in a row. BGE crews are working around the clock but the outages are turning dangerous.

Meghan McCorkell has more.

BGE has restored power to 75 percent of those who lost it during Irene but as those without power wait another night, worries are rising.

For some, the power outages could be life-threatening.

""The only thing that worries me is my insulin. I don't have nobody to get me no ice or anything for it," said Mary Larrabee.

Stacy Mowery also has health problems.

"I have COPD, I'm on inhalers and that's what I really don't like about it because if I get stuck in a breathing situation, I don't have no relief to get me AC for it," Mowery said.

She's also worried about her neighbor's generator, right below her.

"My neighbor, he lit his up and his fumes were coming up my apartment last night," she said.

Carbon monoxide has killed one Maryland man. Won Koo Sung, 48, died inside his Ellicott City home. A generator was found in the garage.

"Generators should always be used outdoors and away from a window and people should have carbon monoxide detectors in their homes," said Dr. Kinjal Sethuraman, Shock Trauma.

Sung's wife and son were rushed into the hyperbaric chamber at Maryland Shock Trauma.

"You hear of a tragedy like this and it's just really, really sad," said neighbor Debbie Nesbitt.

At the BGE staging area, crews are trying to prevent accidents like that. Right now, BGE has 4,600 power crews on the road, including an extra 500 brought in from Alabama Tuesday morning.

"We've been working around the clock since noon on Saturday when we started experiencing outages on our system," said Rachael Lighty, BGE.

But with a job this huge, for some, the wait will continue.

Emergency officials really want people using generators to be safe. Shock Trauma officials say they've already seen four cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.

It could take until Friday or Saturday to fully restore power to the entire state of Maryland.

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