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Cleanup Begins In Carroll County After Ice Storm Rolls Through Md.

WESTMINSTER, Md. (WJZ)—A thin but solid layer of ice made sidewalks slippery and driving conditions dicey Wednesday morning. A combination of ice on power lines and tree branches caused fires and outages across the area.

Linh Bui has more on the conditions in Carroll County.

BGE reports that of the 20,000 customers affected by power outages,  17,000 had been restored by 6 p.m.

But there's still a lot to clean up in Carroll County. Some homeowners say they've never seen anything this bad.

It's a wintry mess in Carroll County. Trees and power lines litter the roads, blocking traffic and making driving dangerous.

"All the lights are out around. There's nothing open. A lot of trees down. It's really bad," said Barbara Keeney.

A layer of ice covered almost every surface from trees to cars.

"I've been watching everybody around here try to get the ice off their cars. I salted my walk to make sure no one falls," said Cory Nance.

"We lost our power. A tree fell on my car. It's continuing to fall on my car. And there's a power line down so I can't take the tree off my car," said Garrett Broadwater.

Nearly half of BGE customers, 46 percent, lost power in Carroll County on Wednesday.

"Trees are down. We have no power. We have no cable. We have no Internet. And we have no idea when it's gonna be restored," said Brent Whalen.

The county opened an emergency shelter for those without power.

A gymnasium at Winters Hill High School will be packed with beds and people looking for a warm place to stay. If need be, the high school can house more than 1,000 people.

Meantime, the cleanup continues. Homeowners are busy clearing storms debris from their yards, while road crews cut down broken tree limbs. Many agree they're glad it was not worse.

"Thank God nobody's hurt. No one was hurt out here," Nance said.

There are several traffic lights in Carroll County that are still out of service, so Maryland State Highway officials remind motorists to treat those intersections as four-way stop signs.

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