People without electricity scramble for relief in wake of Hurricane Irene

STONELEIGH, Md. - The sign outside Ayd Hardware on York Road in Stoneleigh advertises dry ice for $15 per bag, and with her freezer down for four days new, Barbara Mozingo says it’s well worth it.

"Luckily my freezer has held out until now, but now I have do something more drastic."

"The ice came at 20 after 8, and by 8:30, we had a line of people waiting to buy dry ice,” said Assistant Manager Colin Dinnery, "We've had people out of the area saying, 'Where are you? How do you get here?' and if we said $50 a bag, they ain't bothered. I don't know anywhere within a 10 mile radius that has dry ice apart from the supplier downtown somewhere."

In Howard County, residents without the power to pump water from their wells are travelling to the Gary J. Arthur Community Center on Route 97 to fill up from a county tank truck.

"Probably the first days the hardest just adjusting to no TV, no computer, let alone showers, flushing toilets or whatever,” said Mark Turvin of Cooksville, “just the normal things you're used to in life you know especially out here."

As tree service workers and BGE crews work to the point of fatigue pulling 16-hour shifts, residential customers aren’t the only ones relying upon them to get the power back on.

The power outage cost Merchant Tire in Catonsville Plaza thousands of dollars worth of business.

"We were not able to take care of the customers at all,” said Manager Garrett Brewer, “With the electricity down, we couldn't run any air compressors... of course we didn't have any light at all."

By mid-afternoon, linemen got the tire company back in business.

"We've been out of power since Sunday... about two o'clock or so,” said Brewer, “and so we now just got turned back on."

*The water service outside the Gary J. Arthur Community Center in Cooksville will continue from 10 a.m. to dusk each day until all of the power in Howard County is restored.

  Find out how many people are still without power here .