Delmarva Power warning residents to be careful as severe weather season nears
SALISBURY, Md. – As the weather warms, severe storms are near and a local power company wants you to be careful in case of an outage.
“There’s some hazards with it so we want our customers to stay away from any power lines that are down or any wires that are down after a storm,” said Jeff Emmons, Manager of Emergency Preparedness for Delmarva Power.
When working with a live wire, gloves could be the protection between life or death. “Electricity can be life or death and so we encourage our customers to stay away from lines down. Report them to us so that we can send our qualified employees to go out and make sure it’s safe for the public and for our customers,” said Emmons.
Lineworker Andy Stevenson says these incidents often happen because when the power is shut off in an emergency, the power is not completely closed off. “One thing we encounter a lot after a storm is your fine wire down energize it’s not supposed to happen but it unfortunately does through the industry so that’s a big hazard that people encounter after a storm,” said Andy Stevenson, Lineworker with Delmarva Power.
Stevenson says this is an issue, especially for first responders when they are restoring electricity. The amount of power is enough to burn a human body from the inside out which was demonstrated on a sausage. “Our distribution system has two main voltages that we deal with it’s 12,000 V and 25,000 V that’s what you’ll encounter for distribution but we have transmission voltages that go up to 230,000 V,” said Stevenson.
Lineworkers say it’s best to keep your distance from any active repairs or crews. It’s also best to report any outages that you may be experiencing
