Two Storm-Related Deaths, 308,000 Without Power

Editor's note: A death that the state originally attributed to Hurricane Sandy has been retracted and was not hurricane-related.

Hurricane Sandy claimed the lives of two Maryland residents and 308,000 were still without power as of 11:15 a.m. Tuesday.

A large tree fell on the home of a Pasadena man and killed him Monday night.

The first storm-related death was in an automobile accident Monday morning in Montgomery County.

State officials originally connected a third death in Prince George's County with the storm, but county officials are no longer linking the death to the storm. A man changing a tire beneath an SUV was killed when the jack slipped, officials said.

Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Joshua Sharfstein said the two deaths cannot be definitively labeled storm-related until chief medical examiner's office performs autopsies on the bodies.

O’Malley said he was relieved that Maryland prepared for the worst but did not endure it.

“We were very fortunate to be on the kinder end of this very violent storm,” he said.

The heavy winds left sooner than anyone predicted, and utility crews were able to get out to restore power at dawn Tuesday, O’Malley said.

He cautioned drivers to stay off the roads today since there is debris in many roads, but if they do drive around, to remember to treat traffic lights without power as four-way stops.

There were some evacuations in Havre De Grace, where another high tide is expected at 11 p.m. Tuesday. In Crisfield, officials were going door-to-door to evacuate homeowners experiencing flooding, O’Malley said.

In Howard County, an outage at a wastewater treatment plant caused overflow to spill into Little Patuxent River in Savage. About 90 percent of the discharge is storm water and 10 percent is sewage, O’Malley said.

The state is monitoring flooding issues, which the governor said could last several days, and the flow of the Conowingo Dam into the Susquehanna River.