4,000 BGE Customers Still Without Power

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- BGE crews are taking care of the last of the power outages left from Hurricane Irene. The utility is on a tight deadline to restore electricity to everyone by midnight.

Gigi Barnett reports BGE says it's a tough goal to meet.

The women of Iota Phi Lambda sorority spent weeks collecting school supplies for their back-to-school giveaway. The day has come to pass out the gifts, but there's a problem: no lights, thanks to Irene. But the sorority is working around it.

"I said, 'Pull the shades up because there is some light, enough light where we can still do it and if it's just too dark based on the majority of my sorority sisters, then we'll bring it outside,'" said Nona Diggs. "But we have supplies. We're giving them away today."

Hurricane Irene swept through the Atlantic region a week ago. Her winds snapped trees, which fell on power lines. For many, the lights are still out days later.

"When we start the restoration and we set large blocks first, then move through the week and we see numbers go down to a trickle, then we should have the last customers back by a certain time. Nobody thinks they're going to be that customer," said BGE spokesperson Rob Gould.

That means BGE's storm center is still working overtime and tracking everything. So are crews in the field. The utility has a goal to restore power to everyone by late Saturday night.

"We're aggressively attacking this day's restoration just as much as we did on day one and we won't rest until everyone's back," Gould said.

By Friday night, BGE reported small pockets of outages in almost every county. Now the company is going on a first come, first served basis to target those who have gone without it the longest.

As BGE works on the final homes and businesses, the utility says it still needs to track individual power outages.

Under 4,000 customers are still in the dark as BGE approaches its deadline to restore power to everyone by midnight. More than 900 of them are in Baltimore County and about 650 are in Anne Arundel County. Almost 900 customers in Carroll County are also waiting for their lights to come back on.

Since Hurricane Irene hit, BGE has restored power to almost 745,000 homes and businesses.