City Council Hearing on Derecho Lessons Set for Wednesday

BGE will appear before a City Council committee on Wednesday to discuss how future long-term power outages—such as the power failure experienced by many North Baltimore residents after June’s derecho—can be avoided.

According to the council’s legislative calendar, the informational hearing before the Housing and Community Development Committee on the lessons learned from the storm will be held at 5 p.m., at City Hall.

Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke introduced the resolution calling for the hearing this summer.

This June a rare derecho with powerful winds formed quickly and pushed through the area giving BGE little time to prepare a response.

In Northwest Baltimore, many neighborhoods, including areas of Greenspring, and Cross Country, were without power for days. It was the same in several neighborhoods in North Baltimore, ranging from Hampden, to Poplar Hill and Cedarcroft

The major culprit for the power outages were above ground power lines in the area that were damaged or severed by falling trees and branches.