Update: Power is Back for Part of 20 Hillside

Update, Aug. 30, 10:45 p.m.: Late Monday night, Pepco informed Patch that it had sent a crew out to the area of the 20 court of Hillside Road where the damaged power pole is located and that the crew determined the pole was leaning but secure.

Jim Davis and Kathy Owen of 20 court said that a repair crew came out on Tuesday and restored power in two sections of the court. Owen said they had not restored power to her home, however, or the other homes in her cluster, where the power boxes were ripped off the wall.

Original post, 11:44 p.m.: The neighbors on the 20 court of Hillside are keeping watch over a teetering power pole that stands beside 20 G. . The stress on its wires proved too much for the connected power boxes and ripped them off the side of 20 G onto the ground.

Should the pole topple, Greenbelters beyond Hillside might feel the repercussions.

Monday night, Pepco spokesperson Bob Hainey said that Pepco would be working all night throughout storm affected areas to try to bring power back up, but that they were asking people to be patient.

When it was explained to Hainey that the area had a leaning power pole and should it fall, serious consequences might follow, he urged residents of the 20 court to call Pepco. He also said that he personally would make a phone call about their predicament.

Though without power, the court is quite aware that their problems could get much worse.

Monday night, neighbors Kathy Owen, Debbie Pierce and Steve McMichael discussed how the pole had wobbled wildly to and fro on Sunday, as a work crew cut a tree off main power wires further down toward Hillside road.

“I screamed, it rocked pretty good,” Pierce said.

“The hole around the pole is 2-inches, so when the wind blows it moves all over the place,” McMichael said.

Several of the neighbors worried that if a strong wind blew against it, disaster might follow.

McMichael pointed out the pole was standing, or in this case leaning over, a hill. So if it fell, it wouldn’t just fall in place but would likely fall down the hill. In that case, he was concerned that it could pull down other power poles.

“The thing is—what’s it going to rip down from the street, falling down that hill?” he asked nodding in the direction of the main power wires that just last night had been repaired, the same power wires that workmen had cut the tree off.

How much control those wires have over Greenbelt at large is uncertain. But shortly after the crew repaired them and left, the lights started coming on all over old Greenbelt. So McMichael may have good cause for concern.