Published on: Monday, July 26, 2010

By Paige L. Hill

It lasted less than a half an hour, but it may take almost a week to recover from a storm that whipped through Montgomery County Sunday afternoon, bringing with it 70 mph winds and tearing out power lines and downing hundreds, if not thousands of trees.

The damage from the intense storm outweighed the weeks of record-breaking snowfall earlier this year, downing more than 4,500 power lines and leaving close to 300,000 without power.

“Essentially the story is that in 30 minutes, severe 70 mile per hour winds broadsided the county in one of the worst summer storms we have seen,” said Pepco spokeswoman Marybeth Hutchinson. “More people were left without power during the ‘snowpacolypse’ but there weren’t as many lines down—this is going to be a multi-day repair job.”

“Rockville is heavily populated and covered in trees,” Hutchinson said. “That combo can mean when a storms whips through, the leaves act like a sail and take down the power lines in their path.”

Rockville was hit the hardest in the District area according to Hutchinson, leaving businesses without power and without customers. Rockville Town Center looked like a ghost town Monday morning. Some shoppers milled about looking through darkened windows and stepping over tree branches. Signs posted in the windows read “No Power, No Food” and “It’s out of our hands.” Two women sat on the bench outside of Starbucks, still hopeful that their favorite coffee shop would soon open.

“We came for our coffee and we are waiting until they are up and running,” said Lauren Snyder of Rockville. “My office doesn’t have power, my home doesn’t have power, I’m thinking about heading to McDonald’s soon.”

A group of servers for Buffalo Wild Wings gathered outside of the restaurant in uniform, unaware of the power outages.

“I missed the whole thing,” said Michael Torres of Alexandria. “I’m not getting any tips today I guess.”

One store was open despite the lights being turned off: Potomac River Running store and manager Joe Pignone manned the register.

“We could lose $1500 in sales today if we just shut down,” Pignone said. “I realize its far-fetched to think that this will be a good business day, but there are people walking around and nothing else is really open.”

The running store relies on energy to power a treadmill system by which Pignone can gauge which running shoes will best suit a customer’s gait.

“We’re going to have to go old-fashioned today, just have them walk around outside and see how they look,” Pignone said.

The two restaurants with power in Town Center, La Tasca and First Watch Café, were packed with hungry diners who were presumably unable to prepare food at their energy-less homes. The library in Town Center, likewise, was up and running and filled with readers escaping the heat.

“After a couple hours of sitting in the dark without our air conditioning, we took the kids to the library,” said Olney resident Alicia Martinez. “We literally couldn’t stand being in our house any longer.”

Early Monday morning power was restored to the Potomac Water Filtration Plant, according to a spokesman with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. The WSSC serves more than 1 million in the area and reported they were running on a normal schedule by Monday morning.

No deaths or injuries due to the storm had been reported by Monday morning according to Montgomery County Police Department spokesman Cpl. Dan Friz.

“Needless to say our system is beleaguered,” said Hutchinson. “Unfortunately we can’t give an estimation when all power will be restored but we are asking everyone to be patient.”

Montgomery County posted the following closings and changes due to Sunday’s storm:

 * All Montgomery County Recreation facilities are closed today except for the Upper County Neighborhood, Germantown, East County Neighborhood, Marilyn J. Praisner Community and Damascus Community Recreation Centers  and the Germantown Indoor and Olney Swim Centers. 

* All other sites are closed, including the main administrative office.

* All summer camps, summer fun centers and Recreation summer classes are cancelled for today

* Montgomery College Rockville campus will be closed today.  Takoma Park and Germantown campuses will be open.

* Montgomery County’s Permitting Services will be closed to the public.

* The Occupational Medical Service unit is closed and all appointments are cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

* About 187,000  Pepco customers in Montgomery County remain without power.

* 270 County traffic signals remain without power.

* Downed trees throughout the County are still blocking many roads.

* A shelter is open at the East County Recreation Center located at 3310 Gateshead Manor Way, Silver Spring.

* Mandatory water restrictions remain in effect for all Montgomery County and Prince Georges County residents on public water systems until water supplies are recharged.  This includes Rockville residents.  Residents on private wells are unaffected by the mandatory water restrictions.

* Residents and businesses are urged to use water only for essential indoor uses so sufficient water will be available for hospitals, emergency services and fire fighting. 

* All Montgomery County Parks and Recreation programs are cancelled for  today, July 26, including, classes, camps and activities.

* The County’s 311 call center has been activated and is available for non-emergency calls. 

* Residents can report downed trees in the public right-of-way by calling 3-1-1 from within Montgomery County or 240-777-0311 from outside the County.

Water customers should:

*Stop all outside water use – no watering lawns, no washing cars, no   topping off swimming pools 

*Use water only as necessary – i.e., shorter showers and turn off faucets after washing hands 

*Limit toilet flushings (do not flush after every use) 

*Limit washing machine and dishwasher use (wash full loads only) 

* Residents are urged to check on their neighbors, particularly seniors or those with special needs.  

* For emergency assistance, residents should call 911.

* Don't travel if you don't need to.

* Treat all dark intersections as four-way stops. Proceed cautiously.

* To report power outages, call Pepco at 1-877-737-2662, , Allegheny Power at 1-800-255-3443 or Baltimore Gas and Electric at 1-877-778-2222.

* To report “hot” wires or sparking wires, especially those across roadways, call 9-1-1.

* Ride On will operate on Monday, as will trash and recycling collections.  These operations could be delayed due to traffic signal power outages.