Updated: Thousands without power as wind, cold descend on Frederick County
Dec. 23—Gusting winds and extremely cold temperatures ripped through Frederick County on Friday leaving thousands of customers without power, according to the Potomac Edison website.
As of 5:35 p.m., a high concentration of the outages were in Brunswick, where roughly 40% of the city — 1,468 customers — were without power, according to the utility company. A little more than 4% of Frederick County — 5,000 customers — was affected.
The sheer drop in temperature in Frederick County and across the United States is forming a "historic winter storm," according to the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center.
A wind chill advisory is in effect for Frederick until 10 a.m. Saturday, with wind chill temperatures as low as minus-15 degrees, a National Weather Service alert stated.
"The highest wind speeds will be through [Friday] evening," the alert stated. "[E]ffects from the extreme cold could be made worse due to power outages."
Conditions were making it difficult to dispatch crews to restore power for customers, according to Hannah Catlett, a spokesperson for Potomac Edison.
She said the utility has restored power to more than 18,000 customers in Maryland and West Virginia as of Friday afternoon.
"We are working as quickly and safely as possible to get the power back on for all customers," Catlett wrote in an email to the News-Post on Friday.
Icy road conditions and high winds were complicating power restoration efforts, according to Catlett.
"At this time, we are still assessing the damage," Catlett wrote, "but believe it will take several days to restore all customers."
Catlett added that customers who leave their homes should turn off any unneeded lights or appliances that were on when the power went out, avoiding the potential for fires and other safety concerns if power is restored.
Those without shelter were encouraged to go to the Alan P. Linton, Jr. Emergency Shelter at 27 Degrange St., according to Nick Brown, executive director of the Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs, the organization that operates the shelter.
"We have an unofficial 'all-shelter mode,'" Brown said, "which allows as many folks as possible that need to come in, come in."
As of Friday afternoon, Brown said, the shelter had 15 beds open, but the staff was instructed not to turn anyone away and would adjust spacing as needed.
Brown said anyone with questions can email him at nbrown@rcehn.org or call 301-631-2670, ext. 112, after 6 p.m.
