You really start to see the damage in Damascus, Maryland, with trees down and traffic lights out.
At a small convenience store that was open despite having no power, Damascus resident Olga Deneau was stopping in to buy a beverage and book a hotel room on her phone for the night after losing power Sunday afternoon.
“It is difficult,” Deneau said. “Some people can deal better than others. We’re going to go to a hotel because we live with a senior and imagine without electricity.”
Another issue for many residents in these more rural areas is the need to run a pump to get water.
“Most people have wells, so they need to pump with no electricity,” Deneau said.
She’s been without power since Sunday evening, and even though temperatures haven’t reached the hundreds, the warm weather has made things more difficult. BGE has told her she may have to wait until Wednesday to get power back.
For Dan from Damascus, the storms came through in three strong waves that knocked down trees and cut his power. He told WTOP that he was fortunate that he took Monday off.
“So basically, it’s just being around the house. I can’t do anything, I can’t read, it’s too dark. It’s really been more an inconvenience, considering amount of stuff that fell down during the storm,” he said.
Along Georgia Avenue, BGE crews were working to cut down branches. Down the road in Glenwood, in nearby Howard County, George Shaffer has had a rougher time.
George Shaffer said his Glenwood neighborhood lost power Saturday night, got it back Sunday afternoon, only to lose it again during Sunday’s storms.
He spent Monday at the Gary J. Arthur Community Center with several neighbors, passing the time while waiting for their power to return.
“We’re just taking refuge over here at the rec center. They have Wi‑Fi, and you know, you can take a shower there if you want, I think. And then just air conditioning is really like the main thing right now that is the most important, honestly,” Shaffer said.
Finding a sweet escape from the heat
Just two weeks ago, Emma Bunker opened Frosty Flamingo, a snowball stand on Maryland Route 97 in Cooksville. She didn’t think two weeks later she’d be helping cool down her neighbors as they deal with a hot summer day without air conditioning.
“Hope that people can come and stop by and have something to cool down a little bit in the heat, especially with the power being out,” Bunker said.
Her house has been without power since Saturday night. In some ways, going to work has served as a reprieve as her generator hums away, cooling the stand and keeping the ice machine running.
“I did not think this would be an escape from normally hotter here than at my house, but it’s been the other way around lately,” Bunker said.
Her stand is effectively turning frowns upside down, including for Nick Ibello and his young daughter, who didn’t have much time to talk as she worked on her dessert.
“Thankfully, we have a generator, so we’re effectively safe, but she’s still getting a little cabin fever, so we like to come out, and this place just opened, so we want to support little local businesses while we’re at it,” he said.
For Bunker, it’s nice to give back to the community and provide people with an enjoyable way to cool down.
“Especially with a lot of other businesses around here with not being open because power were able to be open with the generator,” she said.
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