Sorry Senator I live in one of the affected communities and can't complain. BGE put the call out in advance, men were working 16 hour days. The power loss was an inconvenience. People need to realize that natural disasters cause problems as well and that they and their overprotected children are not unique little snowflakes. I had to throw away all my food, I couldn't watch tv or use my computer... Big Deal!
At least a tree didn't fall on my house and kill my family. Grow up people.

Completely agree! I mean really people? Stop complaining about BG&E! They worked their butts off to get power restored. This is absolutely ridiculous.

There are dozens of more pressing problems to deal with. No wonder they make this guy sit in the back row.

Blah, blah, blah. Don't try and cash in on this one Jim.
I, also observed the crews working long and hard. Have you driven around your district and observed the damage that luckily didn't cause problems?

Yeah, BGE... Why didn't you plan on all those trees falling down on Route 7? All those record bonuses could have paid for a tree whisperer who could have told you which ones would fall.

This guy's as bad as Jacobs in HarCo asking for investigations into why businesses didn't get priority to get their power back. Just go back to getting free rounds of golf from beer distributors and lobbyists before January's new session.

So... it seems that even a call to look at the issue is enough to get you freaks to start tossing around political jabs. Grow up... it's a fair question to ask BGE about how they responded to the crisis in an area that was without power for nearly a week and where schools were impacted/closed down. Or maybe you earlier posters here prefer we stay in the dark about the facts as well? Get with it...

first of all it was by no means a natural disaster. power outages were not bge fault but i do think they should have had a better plan in place in getting power restored. who ever profits from the large rates we pay bge im sure their power was on.
fyi....did you know bge employees were taking home generators.

guess you can ask yourself how it feels to know when you pay that bge bill your dollar went towards a generator for the benfit of a bge employee that answers the customer services line... yet you have nothing.

No, we all could have gone out and bought/rented generators. We are victims of a bad storm, that's all. Stop trying to milk it for anything Beyond and let's move forward.

There was a poltician in New Jersey who thought it would be a good idea to make the Utilities pay customers a rebate for every day their power was out. I suppose all his lemmings were giving him the Rah! Rah!s, until they discovered just who would be paying those rebates.
Storms/hurricanes happen, and BGE did a pretty good job considering. They brought in a lot of crews from out of state. I talked to one young man from Gettysburg who hadn't been home for 9 days, and didn't know if his house had power.
Might there have been mistakes? Sure. There will be reviews, of course.

We all knew it was coming, and had plenty of time to prepare.

My husband is a lineman, and I personally am really sick and tired of hearing all the whining. It was a hurricane people!! There were crews from out of state here to help. They work around the clock to restore power. Everyone needs to put their big boy/girl panties on and deal with it. I normally do not vent, but enough is enough. If you think you can do a better job, by all means do it, then we will talke.

Like I said before, you haven't seen anything yet. Wait until Exelon takes over.

to all the cry babies who are stating that the postings are about crew workers and those that worked around the clock. why dont you READ. the story is about
"""why BGE didn't contract more workers from other companies around the country, and why the power company didn't prioritize schools for power restoration as it did hospitals""" has NOTHING. i repeat NOTHING to do with who evers husband is a line men or who came from out of state and didnt see their family for 10 thousand hours and a million minutes. read read read. so tired of reading comments from people that twist stuff. this has to do with BGE as a company and those top guys who control what goes on. my lord please give these people some hope.

walker, you are an idiot. They had crews come in from other states to help. as far as paying a bill so I can eat, I pay the same bill as you do. How about you do the job since you are such an expert!

when did you become my doctor lady. do you know what idiot means. fyi. it means: a person affected with extreme mental retardation. lady unless you are a doctor do not call me an idiot. did i call you stupid because you read the article wrong. no i didnt. its funny you keep saying they brought in crews from out of state and the article states different. yet i am not saying they didnt cause i am sure they did. i think they needed more help. as for being an expert. well i sorry i didnt choose to do a job with electric. and i sure hope you havent had a job or have a job in education. maybe you should re-read the article you are making comments on. then look at whos calling who an idiot.

I'm not sure where you heard about the generator rumor but my father and his neighbor both work for BGE (and worked 16+ hours per day for a week and a day) and both had extended outages greater than 2 days (my power was out about 2 days too), and neither brought home a generator from BGE. Rumors aside, 1400 linemen were brought in from out of state. Those workers have to be paid as well, and their home power companies also need to maintain their own levels of staffing so they can provide service to their customers. So there is a limit to how much help you can bring in. We are in the middle of hurricane season, so any coastal states would probably be smart not to let a lot of their workers travel to help us. BGE brought in help from as far west as Ohio. I think there is probably a limit to the distance a power company would let their employees travel, depending on the scale of the disaster (ie this was bad but it was no Hurricane Katrina). The power lines are above ground, and when the wind blows, the infrastructure gets damaged and depending on the scale of damage for any particular incident, it could take a crew the better part of a day to fix it. By the way, have you compared our rates to the rates paid by customers of another major metropolitan utility company?

"With record profits" - Wrong

"Why BGE didn't contract more workers from other companies around the country" - They did

"why the power company didn't prioritize schools for power restoration as it did hospitals." - They did

if i am not mistaken wasnt school delayed . closed the first couple days due to no power. answer please. yes. heres another fun fact. lady i know works for bge not only brought home a generator for herself but another for someone else who didnt have one. want another fun fact. ok. why would someone make a huge stink about something publicly that wasnt true or didnt have their facts in order. so you people are saying that this guy who is calling bge out on what they didnt do turns out that he is wrong and bge really did do what he claims they didnt. not buying what you people are selling.

BALTIMORE, Aug. 26, 2011 – Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) today announced that it has pre-mobilized more than 3,800 employees, contractors and out-of-state linemen and support personnel in an effort to proactively prepare for extensive system damage and widespread outages, due to Hurricane Irene’s forecasted impact on its Central Maryland service area. Since Wednesday, more than 1,000 out-of-state and contract linemen, tree personnel and support staff from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas and Indiana, have been to secured to assist BGE in restoring service to customers as safely and as quickly as possible. – Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) today announced that it has pre-mobilized more than 3,800 employees, contractors and out-of-state linemen and support personnel in an effort to proactively prepare for extensive system damage and widespread outages, due to Hurricane Irene’s forecasted impact on its Central Maryland service area. Since Wednesday, more than 1,000 out-of-state and contract linemen, tree personnel and support staff from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas and Indiana, have been to secured to assist BGE in restoring service to customers as safely and as quickly as possible.

do you people have any clue. do you know what pre-mobilized means. do you think that bge had more than 3,800 people out working on outages. the more you people comment the more i know why this state has issues. just because someone put out a statment doesnt mean jack. what it does do however is cover someones rear and to please those that do not read between the lines. you read and believe what you want to. ask yourself this. out of those 3,800 people how many of them were sitting behind a desk, or working inside, how many of those people are just the clean up crew who sweep or pick up sticks. then ask yourself how many people were really outside working on lines and getting power restored.

Walker, can you substantiate these accusations? Do you truly know how the storm workforce was allocated?

oh dear baby jesus. / BILL. isnt that the reason Brochin called for the hearing, isnt that the reason this news was posted. isnt that what Brochin is pretty much asking for answers on. / i to want BGE to answer how it allocated the storm workforce.

i dont care about what BGE announced about its pre-mobilized more than 3,800 employees, contractors and out-of-state linemen and support personnel "IN AN EFFORT TO PROACTIVELY PREPARE FOR" I want to know how they did it and how many were allocated for what job. Hell BGE could have brought in 3,000 clean up guys and only 800 line men. .

Walker your lying as a matter of fact if what your saying is true contact the BGE intrgrity line and that employee will be fired. No one took home a generator as a matter of fact Rob Gould was seen purchasing two for his home at a hardware chain which announced it to the customers as it was going down. I want to know what did you do for your neighbors during the storm.Obviously your a former employee probably let go for your obvious lack of Integrity or a union organizer still smarting from losing an election 80% to 20% .Thank you all who are posting honest reports about interacting with the people who worked around the clock.

By the way Walker do you know why schools open two hours late or not even all during snow and ice events.Because the state and local jurisdictions handle the main roads and emergency first.They don't even prioritize schools during a little ice so it would seem to me Mr.Brochin supports our SHA and County roads divisions about school priorities during other weather events what was different about a hurricane? BGE would be smart to work on local old age homes and paying customers first 75% don't have kids in school.Did you have to SPEND time with your children because BGE didn't open the schools first?

hey kevin. bill gates purchaed a pc not too long ago which had nothing but microsoft software on it. wish my kids were not grown cause i would love to SPEND that time with them. sorry sir never have i worked for bge nor do i ever want to. perfectly happy doing what i do. as for what did i do for my neighbors during the storm. i made sure my trash can was put away so it didnt fly into someones house or car. what did you do. seems to me you are a brochin hater.

oh kevin one other thing. no reason to lie and no reason to contact bge to tattle tale. ever heard the saying snitches get stitches. no way man im scared of my neighbors.

So your just a coward ,who makes things up .I don't hate Brochin but if your his type of supporter he is in enough trouble .He might be misinformed but your flat out lying.

yes sir. coward of the county. thats me.

We have all become too dependent on the systems in place... old failing infrastructure will not get any better through legislation or investigation... responsible citizens need to better prepare themselves for these kinds of events, for they seem to be on the rise. We need to take responsibility for our own actions with regard to being prepared for the worst case tragedy.

Brochin....typical idiot Democrat!

Fortunately for this storm I had a home generator installed earlier in the summer. The neighborhood lost power for 15 hours. The reason I had to purchase that was due to frequency power outages when the wind blows. These storms happen and I think BGE was on the ball for one of the first time in years. What the politicians need to do is stop the rate hikes to pay for the storms damage, overtime and outside agency help. When the weather is great we don’t get a rebate do we? So when damage happens its just part of doing business.