More than 72,000 homes and businesses in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, were without power Thursday afternoon.
Nick Alexopulos, spokesperson for utility company BGE, said an equipment failure at 3:15 p.m. impacted a large part of the county, knocking out power for more than 72,000 customers.
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses were left in the dark for hours. Power was mostly restored before 11 p.m., according to BGE’s website.
Annapolis Alderman Brooks Schandelmeier told WTOP the cause was either a blown transformer or a circuit trip at the Cedar Park substation.
Schandelmeier said most of the outages affected the Annapolis peninsula, including the City of Annapolis. Traffic lights in the affected area were out and drivers experienced significant delays in various part of the county, with police directing traffic at busy intersections.
He said stoplights were out all over the Annapolis Peninsula, causing some pretty significant traffic jams.
City spokeswoman Mitchelle Stephenson told WTOP that most intersections in the area were tied up Thursday afternoon, describing the situation as “a mess.”
Jennifer Donatelli works for the state government in Annapolis and said her commute home to Brooklyn Park usually takes about 30 to 45 minutes. Even though she was dismissed just before 4 p.m. because of the power outage, Thursday’s drive took an hour-and-a-half.
“The craziest commute ever,” she said. “I’ve never sat in traffic for 90 minutes.”
