Hanover residents picked up branches and raked leaves, but they remained virtually unscathed from Hurricane Irene.
Although , Hanover didn't experience those problems. In fact, the lack of problems caught residents off guard.
“We had filled our bathtubs with water, got food ready and prepared for blackouts, but we didn't have to use any of it,” said Hanover Road resident Rick Hayes.
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Other residents of Hanover experienced the same. Besides the small branches littering yards, some fences, basketball hoops and mailboxes were leaning but hadn't fallen. Hanover residents didn't lose power.
Even though Hanover escaped the storm, many other areas continue to feel the brunt of Hurricane Irene.
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As of Wednesday afternoon, about 9,000 Howard County residents remain without power. Since the beginning of the storm, more than 37,000 have been restored countywide. According to its website, BGE has crews in Howard County working in Elkridge, Ellicott City, Fulton, Dayton, Highland, West Friendship and Woodstock on Wednesday.
The first day of school for Howard County public school students was knocking out power to more than 25 schools and roads not being cleared for travel. All Elkridge students had their first day on Tuesday. By Thursday, all schools in Howard County will have opened their doors for the 2011–2012 school year; Atholton High School was the last to regain power, on Wednesday.
“We have been working aggressively since Saturday with more than 3,800 staff members working around the clock to restore power and deal with storm recovery,” said Rachael Lighty, spokeswoman for BGE. “We ask people to continue to call about power outages and downed wires.”
BGE received more than 5,000 reports of downed wires and wires that could fall, said Lighty. Tree crews are scanning the area to prevent additional wires from falling, she added. The company is making significant progress toward complete restoration.
Elkridge companies reported that Irene didn't disrupt their businesses too much. Many Elkridge businesses still have power and saw a large number of customers after the storm.
“We didn't have to close early," manager of Pharmacy at the Elkridge Corners shopping center. "We had thought flooding would force us to close, but we didn't. We opened as usual on Sunday."
