McDonough: BGE's Storm Preparedness, Response Were Inadequate

BGE was caught flat-footed by a severe thunderstorm last week and the company's response was not enough, according to Del. Pat McDonough.

The Middle River Republican, in a statement released Thursday morning, is calling for an independent evaluation and legislation.

"The people are tired of BGE excuses and lack of information," McDonough wrote in his statement. "The governor and the public service commission must establish a knowledgeable group of experts to study and evaluate the competence of BGE's preparedness and post-storm performance."

McDonough went on to say he will introduce legislation requiring such a study if Gov. Martin O'Malley and the Public Service Commission fail to do so on their own.

McDonough was not immediately available for comment. His statement did not address issues related to PEPCO, which serves Montgomery and Prince George's Counties and Washington DC.

At the height of the outage, more than 1 million customers in Maryland lost power. Both regional power companies estimated that service to all customers would be restored by the end of this week.

As of Thursday morning, BGE reported restoring "92 percent of the more than 700,000 customers who experienced an outage" related to the storm, according to a statement on the company's website.

PEPCO, in a statement Wednesday, says it has restored power to 90 percent of the 443,000 customers affected.

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