Pet Care, Shelter, Power Restoration And Plowing
Jan 27, 2011 19:05 - 5 Comments
Photo by Cindy Cotte Griffiths
Here’s what you need to know if your power is out or street is not plowed.
Plowing
Rockville Public Works crews have completed all primary roads except those where there are wires down or trees felled. They will continue to work around the clock until all the roads have been cleared. Now they are focusing their efforts on secondary roads and expect to have them all open by 5 AM on Friday, January 28. Crews are also out working to remove fallen trees.
Outside of Rockville, Montomery County has plowed all primary and secondary roads in the County and now residential street plowing is underway. More than 200 trees are down and 60 road are closed.
Power Restoration
This afternoon, 109,408 County households served by Pepco were still without power. About 200 traffic signals in the County were affected. Police and other public safety personnel are directing traffic at some intersections and temporary stop signs have been placed at others. I know people have been very appreciative of the temporary stop signs particularly at Park Road.
Pepco has announced that they expect the “vast majority” of customers to be restored by 11 PM tomorrow, January 28th. Yes, you heard me right - more than 24 hours without power still to come. Crews which include those assisting from neighboring states, will continue to work nonstop until all customers have their power restored. If your power is not back on by this time, call 1-877-737-2662. Here’s the County Executive’s residential survey and business survey on how you think PEPCO is doing with service. You must respond by January 31st so don’t delay!
Come in for shelter if you need it. Montgomery County has announced that a shelter at Richard Montgomery High School is open. Although it means sleeping on a cot in the gym, it’s warm and they provide food.
Pet Care
If your power is out, put your bird, bunny or other small mammal in the smallest cage you have and cover it on three sides. Put the 4th side to the sunlight during the day so your pet will eat. Animals can generate their own body heat and you can help keep the heat in with a small cage and cover.
Buses and Back to Normal …. ?
Good to know that County Ride On buses are operating on a Saturday schedule today but will resume the regular weekday service tomorrow. Maybe we can get back to normal. No, wait. Here’s the BIG question. With power outages rampant across the County, will there be school tomorrow?
Just got the text: MCPS is closed on Friday (tomorrow).
i think that your advice for small pets was great, and something that people often overlook. I have tropical fish tanks, and cannot afford a generator. For me. that means covering the tanks in blankets to retain residual warmth until daylight. Then i find friends with power, pack all the fish in sturdy, doubled freezer type ziplok bags, and grab the emergency tank and supplies. I usually leave the tank set up at the friend’s house for a while until I’m sure that the power is stable, then have to reverse the process to bring them home after the temp in the large home tank reaches proper levels. Does anyone have tips for doing this better?
Brenda, you are a wonderful fish owner! Your advice is great. If you can heat water with sterno and float jars of hot water in the tank that helps also if the tank is not too large. Reptile folks have the most at risk but they can package their pets in a crush proof container and sleep with them or pack them in their jackets during the day so the owners body heat warms them.
The power outage at Animal Exchange until 10:30 AM Friday was a huge problem for me. I moved all the boarding pets to my house and moved all the birds from the back room up front in covered cages so they would have enough light to eat. And we left extra food because they eat more to maintain their body temperature.
It got really cold but everyone survived. Remember the birds have a down jacket.
Reptiles can do OK in coolers in many cases; a handwarmer wrapped in a small towel can supply heat if need be. If you have a gas stove you can warm up some water for a warm jar like the fish, or heat a rock in some warm water (not dry!) to about body temp for a heat source. (baking a rock dry can make it explode if any internal moisture turns into steam)
If you haven’t already answered the survey in the links in this article, the deadline for the online Pepco feedback survey conducted by the Pepco Work Group appointed by County Executive Ike Leggett has been extended through Monday, February 14.
“The survey is designed to obtain information on how the public views Pepco’s service, the extent to which customers have experienced outages, the economic impact of those outages and some insight as to what additional costs customers would be willing to incur in exchange for improved service.”