Sandy’s cold punch to Western Maryland: 3 feet of snow, no power
WASHINGTON — Don’t forget western Maryland.
While New York and New Jersey are struggling after Hurricane Sandy, so is western Maryland, which received up to 3 feet of snow from the super storm, knocking out power to more than half of 31,000 residents and blocking many roads.
“We’re used to snow, but we’ve never had anything like this,” R. Lamont “Monty” Pagenhardt, Garrett County administrator, told the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s really bad.”
PHOTOS: Super storm Sandy | Before and after the storm
With power out to many homes and streets blocked by snow and downed trees, National Guard troops are beginning to go door to door to check on residents.
Gov. Martin O’Malley, who visited Garrett County on Thursday, told radio station WBAL, “A lot of times, once we clear a road, a new crop of trees has fallen on the road.”
“We all had our eyes on the coast…. But the snow that came in with the left jab from Mother Nature really hit Garrett County hard,” O’Malley added.
New concerns are the threatened loss of the 911 emergency phone system and flooding. No deaths have been reported.
Pagenhardt has had no power in his home since Monday night.
“It took me a day and a half to get out of my road,” he said. “I had to cut trees and get my friend with a four-wheeler to come drag the trees out of the way.”
“We’ve had 300 inches of snow in a year and been fine,” he said. “But this, with the downed trees and the lack of power for a lot of our people, it makes it really, really bad.”
Still, he said, “The community is pulling together.’’
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