Day 7 Without Power: Bellanca Drive Awaits Relief

On their seventh day without power, a swim club and neighborhood in Elkridge are waiting for an end to the outage that has left more than 16,000 people in Maryland without power for a week.

“We’d like to open as a cooling station for those families that don’t have power," said Katie Yienger, swim team manager at , "but we ourselves don’t have power."

The Watermont Swim Club on Bellanca Drive counts more than 300 families among its membership, or approximately 1,200 people, said Yienger.

Had the power not been out on Friday, July 6, when the National Weather Service reported it was 98 degrees in Elkridge, Yienger said half the membership would have been poolside.

"We're already talking about opening an hour earlier and staying [open] an hour later so families can come cool off" once the power comes back on, said Yienger.

With the heat index , Howard County has opened cooling shelters since Friday, June 29, when a for more than 800,000 Marylanders.

The Columbia Association, YMCA and Roger Carter Recreation Center to the public during the recent heat wave, said Yienger, and the private swim club in Elkridge would like to provide the same service for the community.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to get the power back on,” said Yienger, who was on-site Friday in case power returned. "Our understanding is that it’s a transformer that blew and a tree down on wires."

The pool needs power for its filtration system. "We've been able to vacuum with a water-run system," said Yienger, "but we can't filter the small stuff and so it's a health and hygiene [issue] not having a filter."

Last Saturday morning, following the storm, debris covered the pool and surrounding areas. Thirty families came out after Yienger posted on Facebook around midnight that she needed help in case the utilities returned in time for a swim meet scheduled for Saturday morning. "One of our board members had a rake and was in the pool," she said.

Yienger said BGE told her that crews would likely be working in the Bellanca Drive area on Saturday, July 7.

“Because whatever feeder we’re on has less than 20 families attached to it, we’re on the low priority list because they [prioritize restoration] based on the number of houses," said Yienger.

"And I get that," she continued, "but if you fix a pool, then 300 families that don’t have a pool then have access to a pool where they can cool off while they don’t have power.”

In the meantime, Watermont families and Bellanca Drive residents have been calling BGE. "Our membership has been phenomenal," said Yienger. The swim club's president appeared on WBAL to get the word out about his organization's predicament, she added.

One also brought the situation on Bellanca Drive to light.

“There are 20 houses on Bellanca Drive along with the Watermont Swim Club that have been without power since last Friday afternoon,” Sandy Lee Byerly.

"Per the news, there are trucks from Canada and other states here in Maryland to help our linemen," said Byerly. "So how come single-family homes are being restored when there are neighborhoods still out in Ekridge? But as usual, Elkridge has become the forgotten town in Ho Co except for development and the tax bill."

BGE issued a statement Friday saying approximately 4 percent of those who lost power in the June 29 storm were still without it.

More than 1,200 Howard County residents were experiencing outages as of 5 p.m. on Friday, July 6, according to BGE. Since June 29, the company said 90,000 people have experienced new outages but "restoration of these new outages may be delayed due to the company’s continued priority focus on outages related to last Friday’s storm activity."

Do you know of others in Elkridge without power? Tell us in the comments.

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