Pepco says it's prepared for hurricane season, and it wants to make sure you are, too.
The utility joined the American Red Cross, the National Weather Service and others agencies Wednesday to talk about the upcoming summer's storm season.
Hurricane season begins Saturday, and it's expected to be a busy one.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believes we'll see 13 to 20 named Atlantic storms this season, with 7 to 11 that strengthen into hurricanes and 3 to 6 that become major hurricanes.
Pepco says they've made changes to improve reliability, including trimming trees and improving both underground and overheadpower lines.
The utility also gave details on new technology that will help them prepare for storms and deal with the aftermath, including a mobile app that displays outage maps and gives customers restoration times. Thousands of homes have also been equipped with smart meters, which will give Pepco an idea of where outages are located.
The agency came under fire after last summer's violent derecho storm left thousands without power for days during a heat wave.
Pepco says fewer power outages are expected this year, and those that do occur should be shorter than in the past.
"Thirty-nine percent improvement with frequency means those outages do not occur as often... Forty-two percent improvement with respect to duration means when they do go out of service, they don't go out of service for long. So those are big improvements for our customers for day-to-day reliability," sad Pepco President Thomas Graham.
In Virginia, the State Bureau of Insurance is urging residents to check their coverage before a storm hits. The agency says once a hurricane develops, insurance is harder to acquire until the storm threat has passed.
Most hurricane damage comes from flooding, not high winds, which most policies in Virginia don't cover. Residents in eligible communities can buy flood insurance from the federal government.
From May 25 until May 31, Virginia will also hold its Hurricane and Emergency Preparedness Equipment Tax Holiday. During that week, items needed for hurricane preparedness will be exempt from sales tax. For a full list of eligible items, click here.
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