Restoring power in East Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WMAR) - A significant number of people in the Baltimore area are without power – and now they have been for more than a week.

Crews from as far away as Oklahoma and Canada are still here, trying to get things back to norma, but sometimes they have to turn some people's power off to do it.

It's kind of like a doctor giving the patient a local anesthetic before surgery.

Friday night we watched as a line worker pulled a fuse out -- cutting the power to a block full of homes in East Baltimore.

That allowed the crew, which was from a Philadelphia power company, to do the surgery, safely.

“They did cut it off today for an additional hour so it was pretty miserable,” said Arnold Armstrong, who lives in the area.

People who live here say they can't believe it took so long to get the power back on.  “I think that to leave senior citizens in this type of condition for six days is ridiculous,” he said.

But the work is tedious and time-consuming.  A BGE official said it took the crew of about 15 men, eight hours to clear one tree off power lines in a narrow alley.

All that work -- just to return power to about 20 homes.

“There was a lot of people around here that needed help. To make a long story short, man it was a struggle,” said Kevin Baker of East Baltimore.

And now the power is back on, at least on his street.

“Ah man I was shaking everybody's hand man I was so glad to see them because that meant relief was coming,” he said.