Power Outages Continue in Bowie, Yard Waste Rules Relaxed

In the , thousands in Bowie are still without power after the storm knocked out 40 percent of BGE's customers' service this weekend.

At noon on Monday, BGE was reporting about 5,000 customers in Bowie were still without power, down 8,200 from Sunday. According to a statement from the city of Bowie released this afternoon, it may be several more days before all of Bowie's residents have power again.

Rachael Lighty, a spokesperson for BGE, said that the vast majority of their customer's power would be restored by Friday; however, some extended outages may cause power outages for some customers until the weekend.

“Hurricane Irene’s high wind and heavy rain caused widespread, horrific damage throughout our Central Maryland Service area, including many individual cases of trouble caused by whole trees and large tree branches,” said A. Christopher Burton, senior vice president of gas and electric operations and planning, in a release this afternoon. 

“More than a thousand out-of-state linemen and support staff began arriving in Maryland last Wednesday. These external resources, along with BGE employees and contractors, have been working around-the-clock to restore service to customers as safely and as quickly as possible. They will continue to work tirelessly until service to each and every one of our customers is restored," Burton said.

Several traffic lights have been out throughout the weekend, and currently the intersections of Crain Highway and Collington Road as well as Crain Highway and Mitchelville Road have no power.

One of the main problems causing outages was the large tree branches—and in some cases entire trees—that were knocked down or damaged during the storm. Roads across the state were fully or partially closed while the debris was cleared, Bowie was no exception.

"During the weekend our crews worked to make the streets passable.  They are now going back to cut up trees on the side of the road or in the city rights-of-way. This will take some time to complete.  Please be patient," said Una Cooper, the city's communications coordinator, in a release.

The rules for yard waste within the city have been relaxed to try and help residents get downed trees and branches removed from their neighborhoods. The city asks that residents cut limbs to a manageable size and bundle them or put them in a trash can. Large limbs and cut up trees will be collected separately from smaller bundles of limbs.

The Bowie Job Bank maintains a list of teens who are willing to be hired to do yard work and other light tasks, which can be reached by calling 301-809-3033.

, however because of storm damage the entrance to the administrative offices, the main lobby and the main entrance to the Police Department are closed to the public. Please enter through the entrance near the Finance Department.