tom graham from pepco was on our program yesterday talking to derek mcghentty in our 6:00 show.ear what he had to say about the restoration process. >> friday is realistic. dominion is also calling for full restoration through the weekend and bge as well. >> reporter: so tom graham says they are online with the other utility companies for a full restoration this weekend. but it could be a lot longer for some folks here, unfortunately, in the area. >> delia live in silver spring maryland. right now 40,000 dominion power customers are still without power. down from 450,000 who were in the dark. dominion spokesperson anderson says there is a remote chance some may be without power this weekend. >> i want to emphasize because a crew is not on your street doesn't mean we are not working toward restoration for you. question want people to know we are working toward getting everybody back on as quickly and safely as possible. >> the biggest concentration of outages are in arlington and alexandria. >> reporter: some may be heading into their become yard or street. but the governor of ma

tom graham was on our program yesterday. let's listen to what he had to say. >> reporter: if we bring back the entire circuit. >> let's say 1100 customers on that circuit, we believe all the customers are restored at that time. there could be some damage down the lane. it could be a blown transformer, a blown fuse. the customer gets a call saying their service is back but their service is not back, we need them to call until we get up and running. >> reporter: that was tom graham, talking about some of these issues with downed wires. maybe the confusion that some folks are getting, in regard to whether or not their power is back up and running. communication has been a concern and an issue for a lot of folks. we will maintain our position here on ten brooke and dryden street. it is dark, i'm trying to look at the street sign, and we will bring more lit, hopefully, to this intersection in this dire situation here in silver springs. mike, andrea, back to you. >>> the lingering damage from our epic storm has also prompted some

i asked tom graham that same question and he said the trucks have been working behind the scenes, but this is about the time where we'll start seeing some of these trucks putting up the lines and hopefully restoring some of that power soon but again it's going to be a long time before the majority of the area gets their power back projecting 90% of customers will get their power back by friday. >> pepco is now reporting about 336,000 customers in the dark, most in montgomery and prince george's county and d.c. andrea mccarren is live from northwest with their story. >> reporter: i got to tell you pepco customers are as fired up as the temperatures today, especially when they learned their power would not be restored until friday night, july 6th, at 11 p.m. and the utility does not plan to hold another restoration update for us until wednesday evening. >> i'm trying to keep my language very clean because i have nothing but utter contempt for pepco. >> reporter: pepco customers did not mince their words when they learned their answer to the question of the hour, when is our power going

you heard also pepco president tom graham say they even after commitment from canada. so when you see how large of a response we're getting from places out of our region, from across the country, you really get an idea of how much help we need out here. of course, this work they're saying will begin tomorrow morning. live in landover, ken molestina. >>> we're gipped on the phone by marcus steele, a spokesperson for pepco. marcus, thanks for joining us. within the past 24 hours how many pepco customers have been brought back on line? do you have that number? >> i don't have the number for the last 24 hours but i can say we've restored over 169,000 customers. even from the top of this story i saw the numbers drop significantly. we're down to about 274,000. >> mar corks couple of questions for you. 90% of people should have their power back by 11:00 friday night. a lot of people not impressed with that, marcus, given that the neighbor, virginia power, is saying that 85% of its customers will have power back by tuesday. why are they able to get people back on line by tuesd

that was tom graham speaking at the public service commission in maryland yesterday. and he is asking the psc for 4% rate hike. so if you thought things weren't bad enough, you may have to pay more if you live in maryland. we'll have more on that part of the story coming up a 5:30. back to you. >> absolutely amazing. delia goncalves live from rhode island avenue on last night's storms. >> they were loud. thanks, delia. >>> while the storm dropped rain here in the d.c. region, it caused even worse flooding to our north in and around baltimore. several parts of the city were left under water and plenty of it. down trees and power lines reported in baltimore city and the county as well as part of anne arundel county. baltimore city police were forced to block off a number of intersections because of flooding. >>> the parents of an 8-year- old prince william county boy are charged with felony child abuse. amy and matthew sweeney of net hollow court in bristow were arrested after the child turned up at a house on glen meadow lane and appeared to be lost. the boy had severe

a lot of customers are angry with pepco and general manager tom graham's missteps during a hearing before the public service commission certainly hasn't helped. >> i say to myself is it reasonable for an individual to be upset if they're out of service for a week or more and obviously the answer is no. >> didn't you mean the opposite? i'll just give you a second to- - >> i'm sorry. >> rewind the tape and start again there. >> what i was saying reasonably upset for not having power for a week, it's not reasonable for a person to be upset at all. >> what? >> gosh, he had two chances and still didn't get it right. he did ask later for a redo because he knows he misspoke twice. you've got to feel bad for him a little bit but you may not after all when you think about the fact that tom graham asked for a rate increase. so many of you could be paying a whole lot more when it comes to your electricity bill. we'll have that side of the story coming up at 6:30. back to you. >> thank you, delia. >>> it is 6:05. i'm watching your money. on wall street more strong earnings sent stocks higher. the dow

. >> pepco president tom graham says he understands the frustration, but he says his company is making strides with fewer outages and shorter recovery times since 2010. >>> new numbers suggest voters in the district would prefer their old leadership back. according to a "washington post" poll 52% of those questioned said they would re-elect former d.c. mayor fenty over current mayor gray. only 24% went with gray on that poll and 54% said they believe gray should resign. the poll comes after three council members said last week the mayor should step down in light of an investigation into his 2010 election campaign. three aides have pleaded guilty this year to campaign conspiracy charges. >>> we could see a draft bill as early as today on expanding maryland's gambling laws. governor o'malley spent the last week in closed door meetings. he wants to call a special session on this issue. according to the "maryland gazette" the bill would address concerns that other state casinos would not directly compete with the casino built in prince george's county. they want to see a high-end casino bu

the reason for that, tom graham says is because the crews have been shoring up other parts of the system. those are easy to find. >> it's a disaster all over. >> reporter: he has been driving a cab drought the storm and aftermath. a windfall in revenue perhaps, but not the kind he'd like. >> i was working during this storm and it was crazy. people were crying and you know, but this is the second night i haven't slept. >> reporter: lifetime d.c. resident billy harris has power back, but there was some minor damage and loss. he says he's only seen it like this once before and considers himself among the fortunate in this neighborhood. during the height, he also lost power in intermittent periods. you were pretty lucky, just lost your garage. >> yeah, and my -- >> reporter: and his lawn mower. this is an assessment. 46 traffic signals are dark in the district. 22 trees are down. most in ward 4 and police are directing traffic at 7 d.c. intersections. we're told with the state of emergency declared yesterday, we may start to see national guard krees out if they're not cleared by then and rus

tom graham spoke moments ago at a public hearing held by members of the d.c. council. he talked about the damage he went through. >> wires down, trees crushing cars. i saw this in northeast and northwest. i saw it throughout our entire service territory. something through my 26 year career, i had not seen to that extent. so i know it had to be devastating for those families in the communities that experienced that. >> we'll have much more on gram's comments on 9news now at 11:00. >>> luckily, no storms rolling through our area this afternoon, but top, that could change sometime soon? >> yeah, it could change over the weekend. but a nice evening. we're looking at breaks in the clouds and comfortable in terms of humidity. there are a couple showers to the west of us, but for the most part, nothing heavy and nothing in the immediate metro area. they have been hovering along i- 81 all evening. a couple showers up into pennsylvania. that's really just about it. for the temperatures, look at this. 86 downtown. it is 79 in gaithersburg. fireworks tonight by the way. 79 in lee

the gun again today this time at a hearing in montgomery county where the local pepco president tom graham was struggling even to get his apology right, but john in chantilly says give the guy and the utility a break. all of the power companies did a very good job of restoring power in the face of unprecedented damage to lines and infrastructure. that derecho was not an isolated afternoon summer thunderstorm. it was a historic unprecedented event for this region even considering isabel. to get the amount of work done they did in the amount of time they did was commendable not lamentable. governor o'malley and mayor gray should have socks stuffed in their mouths, about the dave from north chevy chase says even when pepco finally showed up in his neighborhood, they did a shoddy job and he's got photos to prove it. our neighborhood in north chevy chase went a week without power when fallen trees took out our intersection. after a week of calls they finally relented, moved the trees and replaced one pole but left the short one. you can see this is shattered halfway up and calls have gone unret

. >> pepco president tom graham says he understands the frustration but he says his company is making strides with fewer outages and shorter recovery times since 2010. >>> so the big question is what happens today? are we going to see more storms or are we going to see sunlight tonight? tom kierein, what are we in for? it's friday. >> unfortunately today looks like even a greater chance of flooding rain. now, we got those torrential downpour last night around the district that caused the flooding. and this is what our sky looked like at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. didn't have any storms right around washington, but we had flooding rains in baltimore, flooding rains south and east, and look at that line of orange and yellow off to the west. that was the heavy rain with a thunder and lightning that roared right through the metro area last night and now it's off the atlantic seaboard and we have some low clouds hanging in behind that. now we have a flood watch that has been issued for most of the area. we've got temperatures in these areas in green in the 60s including the shenandoah valle

here's what the regional president tom graham said on 9news during the last storm. >> it would take ten-plus years to do that type of project. the cost would go into the billions and the question is do our customers have the appetite to absorb that type of cost. >> 2003 maryland study indicated underground cabling lasts 30 years. that's compared to 50 years of lines that are overhead. the study also said underground lines take longer to fix and they are not immune to flooding or lightning strikes. >>> it is 4:33. here's a look at some of the other stories making news now. more syrian officials are defecting and seeking political asylum. the syrian ambassador to iraq is the latest one to flee. in an interview with the bbc, he says all of the major bombings in syria have been carried out by the syrian government. he says the regime of president bashar al-assad is using the military along with hired mercenaries to attack syrian civilians. he also believes the government will not hesitate to use chemical weapons on civilians and may have already done so he thinks. this comes as heavy fighting be

. >> reporter: tom graham is the regional president for the power company. does it seem like too much to expect in the 21st century that when a storm comes through it doesn't create chaos in the nation's capital? >> well, trees come down and destroy the infrastructure, that's what's going to happen. you have to look at this as a catastrophic event. >> reporter: the bailes say the catastrophe has brought out the best in neighbors for pulling together to help each other. >> we have met more neighborhoods this past week than we have met in the eight years we've been here. >> reporter: it will be friday before most of the lights come back on for the customers. the electricity company says it has in excess of 2,000 contract workers from other states and other utilities helping out and working in around-the-clock shifts. >> pelley: thanks, sharyl, now to the fires in the west. there are at least 50 wildfires burning across 30 states. one air national guardsman was killed when a military plane crashed yesterday while dropping fire retardant in south dakota. anna we

pepco president tom graham joined us a short time ago to respond to criticism over the company's response. >> all i can do and all my company can do is respond to what has taken place. we did not bring down the trees but not bring down the wires. we just have to rebuild the system. the system was devastated. it was a catastrophic event. >> earlier this week, montgomery county exec and ike leggett spoke about pepco that a response. >> isn't going seven days without utilities is not the kind of service we should expect. he is here to talk about pepco's response. how are you handling the power outages at this point? >> we are weathering probably as well as we can very unfortunately we still have real challenges ahead. today will be another hot day 95 and high humidity. as we speak now we still have 140-some intersections without power and 71,000 customers without power. it pretty difficult challenge for people going through the heat and humidity for a fifth day. >> you are not alone. in d.c., mayor gray was blessing pepco for its response times. yesterday i know you made a comment also sendi

pepco president tom graham says until now their fleet of trucks and crews have been working on criticalstructure. in other words electrical sub stations, hospitals, fire houses and police stations. >> 16 of our sub stations were out of service. we had to work on a supply line going into them because a tree knocked them out of service. >> reporter: despite that explanation pepco was taking heat from angry customers who believed utility dragged its feet in response to a power outage. >> reporter: it has been going on for a long time. we lived here almost 30 years. >> we have people from florida, missouri and georgia and also crews from canada. we are doing everything we can right now. >> reporter: pepco's friday night target date to fully restore power, they are saying is not acceptable. >>> we start 9news 6:00 a.m. with the latest on the epic storm aftermath. this is going to be a long week. >>

. >> tom graham and the maryland public service commission's chair, attended the hearing and responded to concerns. >> i completely understand the frustration of the customers who have been out of service. >> what i'm hearing from mr. graham, which makes me infuriated is that he's not listening to what everyone is telling him. >> emily of north bethesda lost power for days after the last storm. that's why she and many other concerned residents attended today's hearing. she said the leadership and president don't get it. >> he said yes it was a big storm, shouldn't be beating up on us, you can expect outages. everybody understands that. >> what happens next depends on what we find. >> the maryland public service commission's chair says the commission must wait on an official report from pepco due at the end of july before they can say if the utility performed poorly or not. >> the review will be thorough and it will be expensive and it will be penetrating and there will be follow-up. >> for many, including montgomery county resident and state senator brian frosh, there's no need to wait

to clear up the confusion, tom graham joins us now, pepco region president. thank you for being here. >> sure. good evening. >> it will be a week tomorrow and people still in the dark. is that acceptable for you? >> we're pleased with our progress, but it's still unsatisfactory that we have not been able to restore more customers. we're not going to rest until each and every customer has been restored. we're working 24/7. we've brought in all the resources that we can bring in from canada, alabama, oklahoma. they're in from all over the country and we're working as hard as we can to restore service. >> this isn't your first rodeo and not as customers our first rodeo either, but we're still getting reports tree trimmers are showing up on the scene. they don't know if the wires are energized or not, so they leave. pepco crews show up and the trees are still there, so they leave, extraordinarily frustrating for the people that live in these neighborhoods. why are you still having these communication problems? >> there's an extreme at of coordination involved and

. >> former secretary of homeland security tom ridge and from crosby stills and nash, graham nash. >>o way. >> he will be here. >> how exciting. >> up next, the morning papers. >> tom ridge you were talking about graham nash. >> and the politico playbook. >> ridge was at woodstock too. >> bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> good morning, everyone. we have the worst weather in the country taking place once again in the northern plains. strong thunderstorms are rolling at this hour through portions of northern minnesota and northern wisconsin. looks like they're going to avoid many of the big cities throughout. we could still see an isolated storm around milwaukee and down to chicago for your morning rush hour. i hope this is the last heat wave forecast map i have to show throughout the middle of the country for a while. i hope this is going to be the hottest day we have for a long time. 100s from dallas to kansas city, st. louis, going to be 106 today, chicago, 100. and this hopefully will be it. cold front will clear this area off tomorrow. how about new england all through t

nash of crosby, stills, nash and young. >> graham nash, that's exciting. >> it's cool. >> not that scott walker and toms a very, very fine house. >> always loved graham nash. that's going to be very great. wonder what he's coming to talk about. we shall see. what did you learn today? >> i learned, for the first time what it feels like to be a member of an oppressed minority. >> what minority? >> that moment, that one block. >> that was it? >> that one block i was part of like the oppressed liberal minority. >> one time? one time in five years. what have you learned? >> you have a deep affection, admiration, interest, for tito. >> yeah. >> it's called history, my man. >> not talking about terry fran cone na. >> did you learn anything? >> not really. >> fascination. >> it's a fascination with a guy who is able

tom fitzgerald has a report. >> reporter: when the trees come down and the power goes out, thomas graham becomes the man on the hot seat. >> i can appreciate that. >> reporter: graham is president of pepco ever since an august 2010 storm that also left hundreds of thousands in the dark. he has become pepco's chief defender, apologist and go-to man during power outages. are you hearing the anger of your customers this time. >> our customers are frustrated. they will be out of service until at least friday. >> reporter: graham has personally fielded much of that frustration. on monday, when he wasn't be interviewed, he was driving between job sites with crews from canada to oklahoma. >> we're making a dent in it but there is a lot of work to do. >> reporter: 360 of these area crews are already at work here with another 350 on the way. the bulk of their work, graham says, is spent restringing miles of electric line that were destroyed by falling trees. >> it is just a lot of damage. there are a lot of lines down. there are about 100 lines reported down thus far. you had have large mature trees that have been topp

was at the recent high of 14%, even tom cool burn said something like who are the 1 4% of the people who trust us? i'm not sure who they are. i'm told lipped sei graham will not admit he's a congressman if people don't recognize. it's funny. so we know don't approve of them. and we know that sometimes can't name our congressman. and so i make the solution that if we know it is -- it is warm. if we know that we want to approve of our congressman and want to name our congressman, one solution is become congressman at birth. we have vested interest. interestingly even though i came up with the rather absurd soluti and explain idea there are a vir virtues to it. again the research and here and independents hall i learned that george washington himself spoke only a few times during the constitution. one of the times he spoke was right near the end and was the only time he waited on the matter of policy. i think we should change the number of representatives we have. the ratio of representation. instead of one out of 40,000. one out of 30,000. i thought, well, if he's going to tinker i'll tinker all the way to make it 1 to 1. as far as the executive branch

fox 5's tom fitzgerald out with some of those pepco crews today and saw firsthand what they're up against. >> reporter: when the trees come down and the power goes out, thomas grahamomes the man on the hot seat. >> so i can appreciate that. >> reporter: graham is president of pepco ever since an august, 2010 storm that also left hundreds of thousands in the dark. he has become pepco's chief defender, apologizer and go to man during power outages. are you hearing the anger of your customers this time? >> our customers are frustrated. they're frustrated because they're going to be out of service till at least friday. >> reporter: graham has personally fielded much of that frustration. on monday when he wasn't being interviewed, he was driving between job sites with crews from canada to oklahoma. >> we're making a dent, but there's a lot of work to too. >> reporter: 360 area crews are already at work here with another 350 on the way. the bulk of their work graham says is spent restringing miles of electric lines that are destroyed by falling trees. >> it's just a lot of damage. there are a lot of lines down. there are about 1,800 lines report downed thus far. you had

high of 14%, even tom coburn said something like who are where these 14% of the people that trust us we met i don't know who they are. i was told, and i'm not sure it is true, lindsey graham said he wants people to recognize them first. which is kind of hilarious. we know that we don't approve them and we also know that we sometimes can't name a congressman. it is warm in here, you are right. if we know that we want to approve of our congressmen and also wants people to name a congressman, one solution is we all become congressman at earth. that way we have a vested interest. even though i came up with a rather good solution and i explained why. again, it was in the research in which i learned the george washington himself spoke only two times during the constitution. one of the times he spoke was near the end. the only time he really weighed in on a matter of policy. and he said i think we should change the number of people of representatives we have, instead of one every 45,000, 100 30,000. and i thought if he is going to take her, i will do so all the way. what we know about the executive branch? we revere george washington. he was presumed to be, what i think we all w