Middle River residents say power outage could have been prevented

Hundreds of thousands of people lost power when the “Derecho” storm hit on June 29 ^th, and people who live in one part of Baltimore County think their outage could have been prevented.

It took seven days to get the power back on along Compass Road in Middle River.

We first visited the area on July 4 ^th, five days after the storm hit.  The power was out because a large tree that had fallen on power lines that run behind the homes in the neighborhood.

It fell from a wooded area behind that -- land that's owned by Baltimore County.

“The tree was not on our property; It was on property that hasn't been maintained,” said resident Shirley Phillips at the time.

Residents say having the power back is nice -- but there are still a lot of trees that remain on that county-owned land, and they are still towering over the homes and the repaired power poles.

“The trees they're really rotten in the middle, especially the ones closer to the property line,” said Compass Road resident Robert Blair.

They say they've been calling about the problem for years.  “I just don't get why they don't do something about it. Because they know it's a threat to us,” Blair said.

Now -- county officials tell ABC-2 News that they have sent inspectors to that wooded area off of Compass Road.

They say at least some of those trees will be taken down within the next two weeks.  People who live here say they'll believe it when they see it.

“It seems like they're just too busy other places. We weren't important,” Blair said.

If you live in Baltimore County you can go to the county's web site and check out who owns properties around yours.

If there are tall trees on an adjacent property, county officials say you should use this site to find out which agency owns it, and contact that agency directly if you have concerns.