Residents of Horizon Hill Demand Resolution of Ongoing Power Outages
Dear Montgomery County Council Members,
Over the past ten months, our group of 52 houses in the Horizon Hill subdivision have experienced a total of ten complete power outages – an average of one outage a month. The length of the outages ranged from 40 minutes to 3 hours, with the majority lasting about 2 hours. The outages occurred on February 7, March 20, April 25, June 29, August 19, November 12, November 30, December 14, December 16, and December 24.
Most power outages have occurred during daytime and early evening hours and all but one in the months following the COVID pandemic. This has inflicted an undue burden on families, most of whom require internet service for children to connect to school and parents to work from home.
Additionally, many of the outages occurred during mealtimes, preventing families from microwaving or cooking meals and limiting access to refrigerated items for fear of food spoilage. More significantly, some of us depend on lifesaving medications that require cold storage, can be accessed only through mail order, and are very expensive to replace. Therefore, in addition to the financial costs, damage to such medications can result in illness or death.
The power outages also further exacerbated the stress our children have already experienced due to the transition to remote learning, while COVID restrictions have limited options for seeking respite elsewhere. Parents have lost hours of work, requiring them to either make up the time, take leave, or lose valuable pay. This is unacceptable, particularly during a time when many families have already lost income.
The December 24 outage occurred late at night when it was pitch black outside. This is extremely dangerous for people wihtout immediate access to a flashlight, especially those with limited mobility. Additionally people who do not have fully charged cell phones at the time an outage occurs will be unable to access emergency assistance.
Several of us have reached out to PEPCO, some multiple times, but we have been unable to obtain a resolution. It is crucial that PEPCO identify and repair the source of the recurring outages as soon as possible, especially given that the power outages are occurring more frequently, with three outages in the month of December.
As constituents, we implore you to please advocate on our behalf in order to get PEPCO to identify and resolve the source of the ongoing power outages in a timely manner.
Sincerely,
Residents of Horizon Hill with Homes Impacted by Ongoing Power Outages
Updates
December 28, 2020
The Montgomery County Council continues to ignore our messages while our food spoils and our medical supplies sit in jeopardy. Their silence shows exactly how little they value the families living in Horizon Hill. Do not let these bureaucrats think we will quietly accept these constant blackouts.
15 Comments
Continuous power outages with a newborn during the coldest part of the year is frustrating
I suffer from sleep apnea and need power to run my CPAP equipment. The company that provides the equipment says there is a battery-powered back-up available, but insurance won't cover it. Shouldn't PEPCO pay me for the battery unit?
It's insane how often our power goes out!!!
The outages are frequent and impact quality of life. Stop the madness.
I commend this effort to seek a permanent resolution of ongoing power outages. My house at 5 Echo Court is one of the houses impacted .
This situation is intolerable.
If anyone has logs of the outages preceding the past 10-months accounted for in this petition, it could be worth including that information. This might help demonstrate that the frequent outages are NOT the result of COVID-related impact (such as maintenance or monitoring personnel shortages, etc).
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Residents of Horizon Hill Demand Resolution of Ongoing Power Outages
Dear Montgomery County Council Members,
Over the past ten months, our group of 52 houses in the Horizon Hill subdivision have experienced a total of ten complete power outages – an average of one outage a month. The length of the outages ranged from 40 minutes to 3 hours, with the majority lasting about 2 hours. The outages occurred on February 7, March 20, April 25, June 29, August 19, November 12, November 30, December 14, December 16, and December 24.
Most power outages have occurred during daytime and early evening hours and all but one in the months following the COVID pandemic. This has inflicted an undue burden on families, most of whom require internet service for children to connect to school and parents to work from home.
Additionally, many of the outages occurred during mealtimes, preventing families from microwaving or cooking meals and limiting access to refrigerated items for fear of food spoilage. More significantly, some of us depend on lifesaving medications that require cold storage, can be accessed only through mail order, and are very expensive to replace. Therefore, in addition to the financial costs, damage to such medications can result in illness or death.
The power outages also further exacerbated the stress our children have already experienced due to the transition to remote learning, while COVID restrictions have limited options for seeking respite elsewhere. Parents have lost hours of work, requiring them to either make up the time, take leave, or lose valuable pay. This is unacceptable, particularly during a time when many families have already lost income.
The December 24 outage occurred late at night when it was pitch black outside. This is extremely dangerous for people wihtout immediate access to a flashlight, especially those with limited mobility. Additionally people who do not have fully charged cell phones at the time an outage occurs will be unable to access emergency assistance.
Several of us have reached out to PEPCO, some multiple times, but we have been unable to obtain a resolution. It is crucial that PEPCO identify and repair the source of the recurring outages as soon as possible, especially given that the power outages are occurring more frequently, with three outages in the month of December.
As constituents, we implore you to please advocate on our behalf in order to get PEPCO to identify and resolve the source of the ongoing power outages in a timely manner.
Sincerely,
Residents of Horizon Hill with Homes Impacted by Ongoing Power Outages
Updates
December 28, 2020
The Montgomery County Council continues to ignore our messages while our food spoils and our medical supplies sit in jeopardy. Their silence shows exactly how little they value the families living in Horizon Hill. Do not let these bureaucrats think we will quietly accept these constant blackouts.
15 Comments
The electric lines to correct the problem have been laid; likely as long as 2 years. There is a connection that needs to be made. It was never made. This is a dispute between PEPCO and the contractor that laid the lines. PEPCO says there is nothing that they can do until this dispute is settled. We have no idea if this is true. Several Horizon Hill families have spoken with various PEPCO employees, who do nothing but say that they will try to move this along. We have also tried to get our positions to do something but that has not worked either. We are at our wits end. Please help us.
Continuous power outages with a newborn during the coldest part of the year is frustrating
I suffer from sleep apnea and need power to run my CPAP equipment. The company that provides the equipment says there is a battery-powered back-up available, but insurance won't cover it. Shouldn't PEPCO pay me for the battery unit?
It's insane how often our power goes out!!!
The outages are frequent and impact quality of life. Stop the madness.
I commend this effort to seek a permanent resolution of ongoing power outages. My house at 5 Echo Court is one of the houses impacted .
This situation is intolerable.
If anyone has logs of the outages preceding the past 10-months accounted for in this petition, it could be worth including that information. This might help demonstrate that the frequent outages are NOT the result of COVID-related impact (such as maintenance or monitoring personnel shortages, etc).
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The electric lines to correct the problem have been laid; likely as long as 2 years. There is a connection that needs to be made. It was never made. This is a dispute between PEPCO and the contractor that laid the lines. PEPCO says there is nothing that they can do until this dispute is settled. We have no idea if this is true. Several Horizon Hill families have spoken with various PEPCO employees, who do nothing but say that they will try to move this along. We have also tried to get our positions to do something but that has not worked either. We are at our wits end. Please help us.