STORM DAMAGE UPDATE

Pepco crews were working hard on the Fourth of July, and had a big job on Georgia Avenue in downtown Wheaton. Two southbound lanes of Georgia were closed yesterday morning near the El Fogón de Wheaton restaurant, as workers replaced a dangling utility pole with a new one. The roar of generators and engines mixed with the metallic clang of a jackhammer as drivers maneuvered past the scene in the single southbound lane.

Traveling the area, I found a massive, uprooted tree collapsed on the property of the soon-to-be-demolished office building at Georgia and Blueridge Avenue in Wheaton. Further up in the Glenmont/Aspen Hill, remnants of a tree were being worked on in front of a Georgia Avenue house. I also saw what was left of at least one fallen tree along the Forest Glen on-ramp to the Capital Beltway in Silver Spring.

Fortunately, all traffic signals I encountered were operational, and power outages were greatly reduced last night, down from thousands when the July 3 storm hit.

Pepco truck on Georgia Avenue

A man prepares to be lifted
in a cherry picker bucket as
the leaning utility pole looms
over Georgia Avenue

Georgia dropped to two lanes,
and then to one at the
scene south of University Blvd.

The replacement pole awaited
installation on a flatbed Pepco
truck down the block

Down to one lane on
Georgia Avenue