Hurricane Sandy Heads for the Mid-Atlantic
Pepco Prepares as Monster Storm Threatens Lives, Properties and Halloween

(Washington, DC) — Hurricane Sandy, fresh from ravaging Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, leaving dozens dead, set its sights on the East Coast of the United States. Potential impact points ranged from Norfolk, VA to New York City.

The storm is described as a nor'easter plus a hurricane wrapped up in one storm. Few if any storms have encountered such a "perfect" mix to come together and wreak havoc in this manner. Forecasters fear the costs in property damage could be in the billions of dollars. One meteorologist estimated that over 60 million Americans could be directly impacted in some way by this storm.

Children may feel the greatest impact of the storm, as it hits just days before – and during – Halloween. It's possible that whole neighborhoods may be flooded or in shambles by the Wednesday holiday.

Power companies began preparing days ago for the planned outages, and DC-area power company Pepco is no exception. Pepco is still feeling the wrath of customers over its mishandling of the June 29, 2012, derecho storm, which knocked out power during a heat wave for over a week in many cases.

In spite of recent employee unrest, Pepco officials say they are prepared this time, pointing to assistance from their new Japanese partner, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), whose workers are standing by to help. TEPCO is the company which so competently handled the incident at Fukushima Daiichi in March 2011.

They also point out the additional funding they now have due to a rate increase that went into effect just this month. In MD, the average residential bill increased by $1.81 a month. In DC, the average residential bill increased by $5.20 a month.

But Pepco is ready to slam its customers harder than Sandy will, according to anonymous sources. Pepco is preparing to implement a one-time "Sandy Surcharge" of at least $100 per household and $500 per business.

"This is the cost of doing business," said a Pepco spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity. "After all, we believe it's OK for customers to suffer. We don't believe it's OK for Pepco management to suffer. And by 'suffer' I mean they shouldn't lose their power, and their coffers shouldn't run dry."

Customer outrage over the surcharge was swift and extreme. "Why doesn’t Pepco just change its motto to 'We Get a Charge out of Screwing our Customers' already?!" asked a Pepco customer, screaming on condition of anonymity.