Tree, power lines fall on Dale Drive in Silver Spring

A large tree has fallen on Dale Drive near Grace Church Road in Silver Spring. Dale Drive is temporarily closed between Crosby Road and Woodland Drive. Power lines were brought down by the tree, resulting in a power outage in the Montgomery Hills/Forest Glen area that also impacted the Forest Glen Metro station. Several commuters stuck in an elevator at the station have been rescued without injury, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer.

Utility work causes road closures in Wheaton (Photos + Video)

Westbound University Boulevard was closed at Grandview Avenue in Wheaton early this evening for emergency utility work. Utility crews were working to restore power after Saturday afternoon's storm. It looks like an out-of-state crew was helping out Pepco. A similiar scene is taking place on Bushey Drive at Randolph Road in the Wheaton-Glenmont area. Bushey is closed at Randolph.

Bushey Drive at Randolph Road

Aspen Hill, Kensington, Wheaton, Olney among hardest hit by power outages after Saturday's storm

Pepco crews staging at the 7-Eleven store
on River Road in Bethesda this morning

Over 10,000 Pepco customers remain without power this morning in Montgomery County, but that number is down about 60,000 from the height of last evening's thunderstorm damage. The weather event, and resulting tree and power line damage, has been one of the few significant tests for Pepco since the electric utility was acquired by Exelon in 2016. Yesterday's storm appeared deceptively routine for late summer, but spawned straight line winds in areas like North Bethesda and Rockville, and had some in Northwest Washington, D.C. reporting a tornado in their community.

Southwest Bethesda neighborhoods like Springfield, Sumner, Wood Acres, Bannockburn and Spring Hill are still experiencing significant power outages. Grid resiliency issues reared their head again in the Westbard area long after skies had cleared Saturday night. Residents there who were fortunate enough to retain power after the storm last night report experiencing brownouts at 2:12 AM and 4:32 AM. The 4:32 AM brownout was an extended one, as after a split-second blackout that ravaged appliance motors, light fixtures were shimmering and flickering until all power was lost around 4:45 AM. Power was then restored around 4:48 AM. Interestingly, both brownout episodes reported seem to coincide with brand new power outages in the Westbard and Wood Acres/Searl Terrace areas, which the Pepco outage map indicates were reported at 2:15 AM (Searl Terrace) and 4:53 AM (Westbard Avenue). This morning's brownouts follow three sunny day brownouts in the Westbard area two weeks ago.

In North Bethesda, apartment building residents reported being in the dark Saturday night, and outages persist around Grosvenor, Garrett Park, Tilden Lane, Randolph Hills and the Randolph Road corridor this morning. Things aren't looking much better in the Twinbrook and Rollins Park areas of Rockville.

Aspen Hill is still smarting today with many outages. Fortunately for those without air conditioning, today's high will "only" be 85 degrees, instead of the 99 degree peak experienced last Friday. Outages also persist around Leisure World, Bel Pre Road, Wheaton, Kensington, Kemp Mill, Takoma Park, Hillandale, Colesville and Fairland. 

The storm appears to have cut a straight path across Montgomery Village, Goshen, and Laytonsville, judging from the large number of outages there. Outages remain in the Kentlands, Montgomery College-Germantown campus, Olney and Sandy Spring areas. 

Frosty Siberian winds lead to falling trees, power outages across Montgomery County and D.C. area

Darkened apartments along
Georgia Avenue near Wheaton Friday night

It's been a "wild and wooly" day across the Washington, D.C. region and much of the nation, to use the words of the telephone meteorologist of old. Gusty winds that have blown from Siberia and down through Canada joined with a bomb cyclone winter weather event to start Friday with a blast of ice. The winds have stuck around through the evening, leading to many falling limbs and trees, and the resulting power outages.

There are currently 8,459 Pepco customers without power in the D.C. Metro area. Outages are widespread over the entire map of Montgomery County. The most concentrated outages are in the Silver Spring, Wheaton, Calverton, Gaithersburg and Germantown areas. In Rockville, there are significant outages in the King Farm, Twinbrook, West End and College Gardens neighborhoods. Bethesda residents are in the dark in a couple of spots along the Bradley Boulevard corridor, and in Westgate near the D.C. line. Over the border, there are outages in the Palisades and Wesley Heights in Northwest Washington.

The current temperature is 11 degrees. Winds are gusting at 18 MPH, and a wind chill advisory is in effect until 10:00 AM Saturday morning. Be sure to fully cover up if you have to go outside to avoid frostbite. Remember that dark intersections during power outages are to be treated as a four-way stop - but proceed with caution, as many drivers ignore this and will steam through the intersection anyway, or rear-end you if you conscientiously try to stop as the law requires. The best advice is to stay off the roads if you can.

Massive power outage across Montgomery County

UPDATE - 12:48 AM, November 28: Both occupants of the plane have been successfully rescued, and are on the ground, Montgomery County Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard said. They are being transported to local hospitals with serious injuries, Fire Chief Goldstein announced, a change from earlier announcements that there were no injuries. 

UPDATE - 12:25 AM, November 28: Pepco reports tremendous progress in power restoration, with only 1,297 customers remaining without power at this moment. Utility workers are using a bucket truck to ground the Pepco tower and transmission lines so that the rescue effort can finally get underway sometime this morning.

UPDATE - 11:50 PM: Pepco claims to have restored power to over 60% of customers affected by the power outage over the last hour. It reports there are now 34,688 customers still without electricity.

UPDATE - 11:30 PM: Montgomery County Public Schools will be closed Monday, November 28, 2022, due to the power outage. MCPS offices will also be closed Monday.

UPDATE - 10:01 PM: Maryland State police have identified the pilot of the plane as Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C., and the passenger as Jan Williams, 66, of Louisiana. Both are still on-board awaiting rescue, and are reportedly not injured.  Their aircraft is a Mooney Mike 20P single engine plane. Pepco reports more customers are without power than ever tonight, with 113,081 now in the dark at this hour. Montgomery County Public Schools says it will make an announcement about potential school closures later tonight.

UPDATE - 9:05 PM: Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein reports that Pepco crews have to manually climb up to ensure the tower is grounded. The plane must then be secured to the tower. A large crane from Digging and Rigging in Clarksburg has been brought in. Additional personnel resources are due to arrive on-scene at 9:30 PM. "One of our concerns is the safety of the occupants in the airplane, the safety of our fire and rescue personnel," Goldstein said. Goldstein confirmed there are two occupants in the plane. "I have no information, I'm not here to talk about power outages," he said. 

UPDATE - 8:34 PM: Occupants of the plane that crashed into the Pepco tower have not yet been rescued. The number of Pepco customers without power in Montgomery County has dropped from 80,922 to 75,672.

UPDATE - 6:03 PM: Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Pete Piringer reports that the power outage has been caused by a plane crash in the Montgomery Village/Gaithersburg area. The plane is stuck in a Pepco tower and power lines, Piringer said. Passengers on board are so far reported to be uninjured.

Pepco customers across Montgomery County are in the dark, after what appears to be a massive system failure. 78,944 customers are currently without power, according to the utility's outage map. In fact, over 20,000 more customers lost power just since I began typing this article. There is no violent weather in the area. 

Virtually all of the outages are in the central and eastern part of the county, but residents in several areas of Bethesda report that their lights flashed multiple times, power fluctuations that can damage appliances and devices. Few of the outages are west of I-270, in Rockville and Germantown. Some of the biggest outages are in Derwood, Aspen Hill, Olney and Wheaton. There are currently a couple of smaller outages in Bethesda - one in the Woodmont Triangle area, and another near the D.C.-Maryland border.

The outage follows a Thanksgiving on which power outages also occurred across the D.C. area. Stay tuned for further updates on the cause of the power outages.

Power outage in Aspen Hill

Pepco is reporting 42 power outages across its service area. One of the largest is in Aspen Hill. A tree fell on a power line in the 13700 block of Parkland Drive. Pepco has a crew on-scene, a resident reports. The official target time for restoration of power there by Pepco is 3:00 PM this afternoon.

Snow gives way to sleet, rain, and wind in Montgomery County

A Sunday snowstorm turned out to be a minor one, in general, for Montgomery County. Snow coated the area for several hours starting Sunday afternoon, but eventually transitioned to sleet, freezing rain, and then rain, as temperatures rose. The main concerns today will be blustery winds and wet or slushy road and sidewalk conditions. There is a wind advisory in place today, warning of occasional gusts reaching 40-55 MPH.

The National Weather Service advises that any loose objects in yards and on balconies be brought indoors. Drivers and pedestrians should be prepared for falling trees and power lines, and power outages. There is currently a small power outage in North Bethesda, affecting 5 Pepco customers near Fernwood Road and Democracy Boulevard. Pepco estimates power will be restored there at 6:00 AM this morning. There are also small outages in the Homewood area of Kensington, and in Forest Glen directly adjacent to the Capital Beltway.

Metrobus is on a Saturday Supplemental schedule today. Ride On bus is on a holiday schedule, and Ride On extRa and Flex services are not operating. The current temperature is one degree above freezing, and will rise steadily to a high of 36 degrees in the early afternoon hours. Expect occasional snow flurries or light rain this morning, giving way to cloudy and dry conditions by noon. The NWS forecasts that any notable snowfall today will be limited to the mountains to our west.

2 power outages in Colesville

Some Colesville residents are waking up in the dark this morning. There are two power outages in the neighborhood around Meadowood Park. Pepco says it has a crew on the site of one south of the park, and that power will be restored there by 11:00 AM. A second, smaller outage will be restored by noon, the utility reports.

High winds cause power outages in Silver Spring, Wheaton, Kensington, Colesville, Kemp MIll

Hundreds of Pepco customers in eastern Montgomery County are without power as gusty winds buffet the DC metro area. High winds with gusts into the 50 MPH range are possible through early Saturday morning.

The largest power outage is in the area around Wheaton Regional Park, where 302 customers are in the dark at this hour. Pepco estimates power will be restored there by 9:00 PM tonight.  Less than five customers are currently impacted by an outage in the Kemp Mill neighborhood. Similar small-scale outages are currently being reported in Kensington, the Goodacre Knolls/Long Branch area of Silver Spring, and Colesville.

Power outages persist in Wheaton (Photos)

Wheaton business owners were delivering the same message in multiple languages Saturday, after continued power outages forced them to remain closed. On Saturday evening, only one Pepco truck could be found in "downtown" Wheaton, on Veirs Mill Road in front of Lindsay Ford. The power utility failed to summon enough additional crews from other states, despite having 72 hours notice from the National Weather Service. About 100 customers remain without power in the commercial area of the Wheaton Triangle. Thousands more are still without power in residential homes and businesses across the East County at this hour. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Metro power issues at Twinbrook cause outage in downtown Silver Spring

A power problem at the Twinbrook Metro station in Rockville mysteriously also affected homes connected to Metro's power grid in downtown Silver Spring earlier this morning. As WMATA reported an unspecified power problem at Twinbrook around 4:20 AM, residents in the vicinity of the Cameron Hill townhomes lost power as well.

The outage lasted for less than an hour, one resident reported.

Residents in the dark again at University Towers

A second electrical fire this week yesterday has blacked out the University Towers condominiums at 1111 University Boulevard W. in Silver Spring. More than 1000 residents are without air conditioning, hot water and other basic services at the 275 unit complex.

Electrical contractors, engineers and others worked throughout the day Tuesday to resolve the outage, which began after the property's second fire in 72 hours, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesperson Pete Piringer. He said the condo's fire alarm system remains functional.

Montgomery County code enforcement officers have inspected the situation and posted a violation notice at the property, Piringer said.

Despite the heat, most residents are sticking it out in their units overnight. For those who want out, the Red Cross has now established a shelter at Blair High School. The Parents Coalition of Montgomery County tweeted a query as to as why the closer Northwood High School was not utilized - good question.

A more long term question that must be on the minds of University Towers residents: How did this happen? And, how much is it going to cost them to fix? As a condo building, unless a contractor or other 3rd party can be fingered for this, the cost will likely fall on residents to pay off with a higher condo fee.

STORMS KNOCK DOWN WIRES, KNOCK OUT POWER IN ASPEN HILL, GLENMONT, SILVER SPRING

Wires were reported down and power out in the vicinity of Bel Pre Road and Big Bear Court in Aspen Hill this evening. Pepco estimates restoration by 9:00 PM tonight there.

Three small outages near Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road in Glenmont are forecast to take a bit longer to fix, with power not expected back near Glenallen Avenue and Randolph until noon tomorrow. Another small outage in Kemp Mill has a 6:00 AM restoration time.

Two other small outages are currently reported in southern Wheaton, and west of Four Corners.

The largest outages are north of Leisure World around Norbeck Road and the ICC. I've also received a report of storm/wind damage within Leisure World.

STORMS CAUSE POWER OUTAGES IN SILVER SPRING, ASPEN HILL

A storm with particularly-violent lightning left many without power last night through this morning in eastern Montgomery County.

Affected areas include Woodside Park, Sligo Creek Parkway, White Oak, Fairland and the Bel Pre area of Aspen Hill. Pepco projects power being restored in all of these areas by later today, but some were still under evaluation as of 1:00 AM.

STORM KNOCKS OUT POWER IN ASPEN HILL, LAYHILL, KEMP MILL/WHEATON AREAS - POWER OUTAGE UPDATE

Aspen Hill found itself in the path of a violent thunderstorm Sunday night, which left debris and significant power outages in the area. About an hour ago, the state of Maryland was warning drivers of tree debris in the right lane of southbound Georgia Avenue, near Bel Pre Road.

Over 300 Pepco customers are currently without power in Aspen Hill. Pepco crews are reportedly on the scene, and power restoration is estimated for 2:00 AM. A smaller outage near Flint Rock Road should be fixed by 1:00 PM Monday afternoon, Pepco says at this hour.

Another outage off Layhill Road, around Barrie Campus Drive, is currently under evaluation by Pepco, with restoration estimated at 3:00 AM this morning.

There is also a sizable outage in the Kemp Mill/Springbrook Forest area of Wheaton. Those are near Hermleigh Road (6 AM estimate), Stonington Place (12 PM), and Lovejoy Street (3 AM).

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

SILVER SPRING/WHEATON/ASPEN HILL/GLENMONT POWER OUTAGE UPDATE

Dozens of customers are without power around Silver Spring and Wheaton tonight. Less than 5 Pepco customers are in the dark off Georgia Avenue just south of the Matthew Henson State Park in the Aspen Hill-Glenmont area. Other small outages are being reported off of Connecticut Avenue, south of Veirs Mill Road, in Montgomery Knolls, along New Hampshire Avenue near Notley Road, and in the Glen Haven and southern Kemp Mill areas of Wheaton. The greatest number of outages are in the Glenmont Forest vicinity.

Pepco's current estimate for restoration of power to these folks is midnight.

POWER OUTAGES NEAR ASPEN HILL, LEISURE WORLD

Electrical storms passed through the area Wednesday night, but as of early this morning, 2 small power outages were being addressed by Pepco. One was in the Connecticut Avenue Estates/Green Wood Knolls area of Wheaton, near Aspen Hill and Glenmont. The second was in the vicinity of Leisure World.

Both outages affected 5 or less customers each, according to Pepco, and were scheduled to be fixed by this morning.

TRANSFORMER FAILURE CAUSES POWER OUTAGES IN SILVER SPRING, ASPEN HILL

A transformer failure has knocked out power to a handful of Pepco customers in the vicinity of 2nd Avenue and Cameron Street in downtown Silver Spring. Pepco estimates power will be restored by 4:00 AM.

Several customers are also in the dark in Aspen Hill, in a neighborhood off of Arctic Avenue. That outage has a 3:00 AM restoration time, according to Pepco.

POWER OUTAGES IN ASPEN HILL, SILVER SPRING, BURNT MILLS HILLS

Several Pepco customers are without power in Aspen Hill, primarily in the English Manor area. Those outages are expected to be restored within the hour, according to Pepco.

A much larger outage in the Woodside Park area of Silver Spring has about 300 customers in the dark, and is expected to be fixed by 10:00 PM tonight. One around Mansfield Road could be out until 11:00 PM, Pepco says.

Alas, those in the Burnt Mills Hills area of White Oak may have to wait until 2:00 AM for power.