The D.C. region continues to grapple with road closures and power outages after a severe thunderstorm Saturday.

Power outages in Prince George’s County continue for the third day after powerline damage from Tuesday’s thunderstorms.

A severe thunderstorm watch remains in effect until later this evening.

“Pepco is well prepared for the storm, but if roads become impassable due to deep snow and downed trees, our power restoration efforts could be slowed,” said the company’s president.

“We can move the snow,” she says.

It’s a bonafide snowblivion!

At a press conference earlier this afternoon, Mayor Vince Gray led a round of applause for an entity many thought should never be deserving of such praise: Pepco.

With the D.C. area waking up after a day in which Hurricane Sandy battered the region with high winds and constant rain, only about 21,000 of the power utility’s customers are in the dark.

With 20,000 Pepco customers in the District still without power after last Friday’s derecho storm, members of the D.C. Council are taking steps to inquire why so many people lost service and why, four days after the storm, so many are still in the dark.

Coming back from a weeklong trip to China, Mayor Vince Gray returned home over the weekend to find that like tens of thousands of other D.C. residents, he, too, lost power during last Friday’s thunderous derecho storm.