Carroll County Deals with Power Outages, Road Closings Following Irene

As we say goodbye to Hurricane Irene, it appears as though the worst of it for Carroll County has been in losing residential power and downed trees/debris in roadways. 

Westminster Police Chief Jeffrey Spaulding told Patch that as of 9 a.m., there are 15,320 customers in Carroll County without power. Carroll County Emergency Management Coordinator Jim Weed told Patch that the county office building is running on back-up power.

A news statement from Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) warns customers that it could take several days to restore power. 

According to the BGE news release, "As a result of numerous trees and very large tree limbs that have already come down onto power lines, and additional trees expected to fall due to the ongoing high wind, the utility advises customers that the restoration effort will take a minimum of several days to complete. In some cases, work is being delayed until it is safe to perform, such as the use of bucket trucks which are extremely hazardous if used when the wind is at or above 25 miles per hour. The utility expects numerous new outages to occur today and possibly throughout the next few days."

One family used the shelter last night Weed said. The emergency shelter located at Winters Mill High School will remain open today. 

"The shelter will stay open today until we figure out how long people will be without power," Weed said.

Spaulding said that there are about 40 roads closed in the county and additional four closed in the city. In many cases, he said, they are waiting for BGE to clear downed power lines before crews can clear the trees and debris. 

The traffic light is out at Englar Road and Rt. 140. Traffic is being directed by Westminster City Police personnel. 

There have been no major injuries or fatalities reported in Carroll County as a result of the hurricane. 

"In large measure, Westminster fared very well," Spaulding said. "All in all, things went pretty much as planned." 

According to Weather Underground, today Carroll County will see rain early this morning, then partly sunny with a slight chance of rain this afternoon. Windy with highs in the upper 70s. Northwest winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph.