Protectors of the Pearlies

Okay, we’ll grant you that, with the global coronavirus pandemic on hand, it seems an odd time to do our annual survey of the metro area’s top dentists. But the fact is, dental issues and emergencies aren’t going to politely step aside because of this crisis or any other.

So we once again asked the area’s doctors of dental science who they thought their most expert colleagues were in each of the eight D.D.S. specialties. That’s because, in our many years of doing this survey, we’ve learned that dentists know best.

So here are our picks for the dentists with the most peer referrals, divided into different areas of the region and specialties. Also, while we were at it, we wanted to know what inspires young people to go into the field (especially now)—and their stories were, indeed, inspiring.

DRS. SALEHA AND JESSE RITTER

This year’s dentist advisors helping to oversee the peer survey are husband-and-wife Drs. Jesse and Saleha Ritter, owners of Smile Solutions of Baltimore, located in the historic Towson-area neighborhood of Anneslie. It provides a range of services from rehabilitative and cosmetic to sleep-apnea treatments, and also offers virtual consultations so patients can have their questions answered before making a decision on a procedure. Both doctors graduated from the University of Maryland Dental School and purchased the practice in 2012. In addition to practicing, Dr. Jesse Ritter teaches, creates his own media content, and is in the process of building an online course. Dr. Saleha Ritter is also a freelance copywriter and portrait photogra- pher. They have two children, Ryan and Zara, and live in Monkton.

Getting people downtown again for shopping, dining, and events. Helping businesses reopen and rehire. Keeping commercial office and retail space filled.

Those are just a few of the challenges facing the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore (DPOB) as the business district tries to bounce back from the pandemic lockdown. But the economic development agency’s board thinks it has just the woman for the job: An electrical engineer.

Well, okay, Shelonda Stokes, just named president after serving in an interim leadership role, is no longer a practicing electrical engineer, but it was her major at Morgan State University. And she thinks that skill set can help DPOB dial up the voltage on the downtown area.

Named by the organization’s board of directors as its fourth president, Stokes replaces Kirby Fowler, who left to become president and CEO of the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore this past April. Stokes, a long-serving member of the Partnership’s board, became its chair last fall and was asked to serve as interim president when the COVID-19 pandemic shut the nation down in March. Prior to accepting that appointment, she was president and CEO of greiBO Media, a marketing and production studio based in Downtown Baltimore.

As interim president of an organization deemed “essential” during the shutdown by Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, Stokes worked to outfit the Partnership’s operations teams with PPE and the proper safety protocols so they could return to providing public safety, litter removal, homeless outreach, and park maintenance services. She oversaw creation of the #CurbsideBaltimore gift-card program that has provided local restaurants and retailers with an infusion of cash, launched the #ArtofBaltimore public art initiative, and has taken over Heart of the Park, a service began by Harbor Park Garage and Pierpoint Restaurant that provides 250 free meals daily.

But what about that electrical engineering degree?

“I grew up extremely poor,” says the 48-year-old Baltimore native and mother of two. “I was the first in my family to go to college. And I went into that major at Morgan to make sure I’d be in a field where there’d be no question about employment. And, in fact, after I graduated, I got seven job offers. But, actually, the essence of many technical fields is about problem-solving. And I apply those technical skills on a daily basis.”

The Partnership is really two organizations. One focuses on marketing the downtown area, which is supported by revenue from events and membership dues from downtown businesses. The other is the Downtown Management Authority, which oversees improvements to public spaces in the 106-city-block area and is funded by a surcharge on the taxes of commercial properties downtown.

But because of business closures caused by the pandemic, the funding for the prior operation is facing real strains.

“So we have to figure out how we can offer more with less,” she says. “And that’s something we’re definitely focused on as a priority.”

Another priority is getting the word out that Charm City is open for business.

“Many people have learned to work from home, they’re saving gas, and they don’t have to dress up in the morning—that’s a reality,” Stokes says. “So we have to give them a reason to leave that and come back downtown and spend money.”

And how long will that take? The Owings Mills resident—who’s about to move to a new home downtown—says it’s hard to project.

“We’re still in Stage One. And the city has to find a balance between people’s health and the economy. It’s going to be a while, but we’ll see incremental progress.”

So how does it feel to lose the “interim” part of her title?

“It’s pretty funny,” Stokes says. “It’s like being a substitute teacher at work.”

Sometimes, it’s about re-inventing yourself.

Example: There’s a metro-area charter-bus company that used to super-clean its buses with a powerful disinfectant spray before each booking—that was before the pandemic.

Most of the workers have been laid off in the past two months, leaving the owner staring at shelves and shelves of the spray bottles. Lightbulb: Answer the sudden demand from office-building management companies, government agencies, and other building owners in the Mid-Atlantic to seriously sterilize their properties.

“That’s the kind of commercial morphing and innovation you’re going to see all over the metro area in the months to come,” says 35-year financial services veteran Christopher Helmrath, managing director of Ellicott City-based SC&H Capital, an investment banking division of SC&H Group that specializes in mergers and acquisitions (which often is about knowing what companies are ready to sell for cheap—or how their factories can be adapted to produce other products.) “And you’re going to see a big shift in jobs.”

Can’t hold a traditional funeral? There’s this startup called econdolense.com that’s producing virtual services at Sol Levinson & Bros., the leading funeral home for the Jewish community. Can’t keep your restaurant open with curbside delivery? Some have begun selling groceries to take up the slack from stressed-out chains like Giant and Safeway.

“In the biggest re-allocation of resources and worker skills since World War II—when companies like GM went from making Pontiacs to warplanes—it’s going to be about adapting to the new norm, or being left out of the picture,” says Helmrath. “Suddenly now, you have Under Armour making face masks, as well as that My Pillow company we saw on the TV ads, and automakers producing ventilators.”

And those sorts of tectonic shifts are going to open up employment for tens of thousands of Baltimore workers who’ve been laid off, from the hospitality and restaurant industries to workers in transport and gaming. The only question is how long that will take.

So there’s lots of losers, but there’ll be winners, too, from remote-meeting software to liquor stores, grocers, delivery companies, Amazon, or the people that make Chlorox and Charmin—as well as, it turns out, the cannabis industry. And, of course, bankruptcy lawyers.

One big question mark is commercial office space.

“After they learned to work remotely for the most part, are all the companies in downtown Baltimore really going to need all that office space at $60 a square foot? So then what are the empty office buildings or hotels going to be used for?” Helmrath asks. And that shift, in turn, could crank up demand for home-computer upgrades, as well as generating new technologies like video teaching and health-care products. “You’ve seen Baltimore hospitals so far managing to triage the situation without thousands of people showing up in emergency rooms, by using parking-lot tests and telemetry. And those lessons will change urgent care.”

In the case of teleworking and those potentially empty office buildings, economics and real-estate expert Luis E. Quintero, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business, sees an opportunity for Baltimore.

“The transition to remote work that is happening now is bound to transform the way we work in the long run,” Quintero says. “We will not all move towards teleworking, of course, but some will. Remote work can also happen between branches of the same firm. The next step will naturally be moving office space to locations with cheaper real estate and keeping headquarters in high-productivity expensive cities. This can benefit Baltimore.”

And then, there are Baltimore’s landlords.

“The whole real-estate value chain can be disrupted in this crisis,” Quintero says. “Landlords that cannot collect rents, which will be affected by both growing unemployment and measures in the proposed stimulus bill that includes a moratorium on evictions. So landlords will not be able to make proper maintenance, which will accelerate depreciation of real estate.”

And the same goes for real-estate sales, he adds. “Multiple listing services have already reported that closings, new contracts, and new listings are down 25-30 percent year over year in the last two weeks of March, even despite low mortgage rates.” This might spur refinancing and improve the monthly mortgage payments.

However, the decline in real estate value would also deepen the share of homes with negative equity. The proposed stimulus package includes the mortgage holders right to request forbearance. This can benefit struggling homeowners, but can affect investors in mortgage-backed securities and banks that service loans.

Nationally, there’s plenty of financial liquidity to get through this and the federal government is willing to print more money to make it work, but Baltimore may be in a better position than some cities to recover quickly, Helmrath says.

That’s because of federal government jobs (i.e. a federal court, the Social Security Administration, the NSA and other intelligence agencies) and a financially healthy state government.

“Outside of the city, Maryland also has a great deal of wealth that other areas don’t have to weather this,” Helmrath says. “But this is really a time to look at what you can create that’s new and needed, something that wasn’t there before.”

And, so, exactly how long will this drag on before any recovery can start?

“Maryland’s stay-at-home order was given later than would have been optimal,” says Quintero. “The epidemic curve was allowed to accelerate. There aren’t significant studies at the city level, but the projections for the whole state of Maryland, in terms of peak deaths, has now been updated to May 1 in a study by the University of Washington and The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). This is already taking into account the stay-at-home order, and assuming the population complies. So the situation is not positive.”

A piece of Baltimore history will close next week when Tuxedo Pharmacy ends its 83-year-history of serving the tony neighborhood with everything from cosmetics and greeting cards to prescription medicines.

Brothers Harold, 79, and Arnold Davidov, 82, who grew up in the apartments located above the storefront, announced the neighborhood pharmacy would merge with the CVS Pharmacy on Falls Road, with Tuxedo staff expected to make the move to CVS, as well.

Among the reasons for calling it quits was falling reimbursements from insurance companies, which have hit independent pharmacies particularly hard. “It’s been terrible,” Harold said. “It basically makes your pharmacy department unprofitable. Independent pharmacies are in just so much trouble. They just can’t do the volume.”

Harold says his staff took it hard. “They were very upset. They’re all going to give CVS a try, but they enjoyed it here as much as I did—the customer interaction here has always been very good.”

Some of his oldest customers remember coming to Tuxedo as kids, as soon as it opened in 1936, for the soda fountain. Since then, four generations of Davidovs have worked there.

“I can’t tell you how many people have come into the store since the announcement to share childhood memories of coming in here, going back so many years,” he said.

After the merger with CVS, customers’ prescription records will be confidentially transferred to the pharmaceutical giant, starting on January 9. The Davidovs don’t yet know what will become of the space on Roland Avenue.

So what’s next for the brothers?

“We’re old enough to retire, but I don’t know what the next chapter is—it’s a journey.” Harold said. “I might do charity work or take some courses. But I think the one in trouble is my wife. I’m going to be home more and she’s going to have to put up with me.”

A Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA) study has recommended tearing down the dilapidated Pimlico Race Course and starting over—at a cost of more than $400 million. But while the operators of the track agree in principle with the report’s findings, they’re not up for paying the tab themselves.

The study, released today, envisions multiple, year-round uses for the facility, but focused in the short term on just replacing the clubhouse, grandstands, tracks, infield, and assorted racing-related outbuildings. Retail, residential, units—even a hotel—could be later phases on the sprawling track between Mt. Washington and Pimlico but would likely have to be funded by private enterprise.

According to the study’s findings, without a large investment in the track, Pimlico faces “significant challenges, which, if not addressed, may threaten its continued existence and the success of the Preakness Stakes.”

The study also suggests city and state officials, the track operators—the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC) and The Stronach Group of Canada, which owns Pimlico and Laurel Park—begin talks about the next steps, a recommendation supported by Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh.

“What we believe is, this is a path forward for the Preakness in Baltimore,” Pugh said. “We know this is going to require public-private partnerships, including the state.”

In a statement, Belinda Stronach, chairman and president of The Stronach Group, thanked the MSA for its “thorough and extensive job of understanding and responding to the challenges of the aging Pimlico Race Course. The final conclusions of the MSA report are in line with our assessment that, in order to bring the facility up to par, it will require several hundreds of millions of dollars.”

But the Stronach Group has consistently balked at the idea of paying for such a rebuild out of pocket, saying significant public investment is necessary. The company has suggested it’s open to discussing a public-private partnership.

Marty Azola, president of the Azola Companies, known for historic restorations across Baltimore and a national expert on adaptive reuse, served as vice president for facilities at Pimlico for several years in the late 1990s, and knows every worn-out corner of the property. While he has mixed feelings about dropping large sums on Pimlico, he acknowledges how important it is to keep the race in Charm City.

“The argument about where to run Preakness is not just about the facilities,” says Azola, who’s also author of the recent book Rebuilding Baltimore. “It’s about civic pride. It’s about our nation’s history in Baltimore. We have so few nationally prominent businesses and events in our city. Let’s not even consider losing Preakness.”

But he thinks a less ambitious redo might make more sense.

“I am very aware of the business realities for the MJC and support public financing of the Pimlico rebuild so the MJC can profit reasonably,” he said. “But you could also argue that record crowds keep coming notwithstanding the condition. It’s the event that draws them. I’d recommend a smaller year-round facility at Pimlico similar with state-of-the-art simulcasting, food service, banquet and other revenue-producing spaces. Then provide fair-weather grandstand facilities and all the infield amenities for the extra 100,000 fans that come on that one special day—Preakness.”

Preakness for the owners of Pimlico is like black Friday at the mall—that’s historically the day they show a profit for the year. It’s also the single biggest event of the year in terms of revenue for Baltimore.

“A revamped Pimlico would help support adjacent development indirectly but understand that racing fans are unlikely to venture off site for any meaningful amount of business,” adds Azola.” “It’s the same dynamic as casinos. You need all amenities on-site.”

A politician’s best bet days before an election? Make sweeping job-creation claims at a corporate gold-shovel show. Then hope nobody fact-checks you.

That’s a bit what it sounded like recently, when, two weeks before election day, local, state, and national elected officials from both parties joined economic development officials and company officials to announce “Cybertown, USA.” In essence, a cybersecurity firm and venture-capital companies that invest in tech startups are setting up shop in Port Covington, the massive mixed-use mini-city on a large waterfront tract in South Baltimore that’s the brainchild of Under Armour founder Kevin Plank.

Try on some of these claims for size: “Maryland is home to the world’s most advanced cybersecurity and data science . . .”; Baltimore is positioned to be the cyber and innovation capital of our nation”; and the jobs announcement “helps solidify Baltimore and Maryland’s reputation as the cybersecurity capital of the world.”

(That’s from Mike Janke, co-founder of DataTribe, Gov. Larry Hogan, and congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, respectively.)

Granted, it’s always good news that three companies are locating here: DataTribe, a globally known cybersecurity startup studio with offices in Maryland and Silicon Valley; AllegisCyber, a leading Silicon Valley-based early-stage cybersecurity venture-capital firm; and Evergreen Advisors, a Columbia-based investment banking and corporate advisory firm focused on assisting emerging-growth and middle-market companies.

And one of Port Covington’s draws for the tech industry in the years ahead may be that it boasts a secure, redundant, private fiber-optic loop to provide gigabit-speed internet connectivity and site-wide public Wi-Fi service. The development is also unique in that it will be built from the ground up with a cybersecurity-hardened infrastructure.

But how does the Baltimore region really stack up nationally when it comes to cybersecurity and other I.T. jobs?

We checked out sources that don’t need ballots to maintain their bank balances: The folks at Money magazine say we fall about in the middle of the pack in terms of I.T. job growth—109 percent growth annually—on a list of 20 cities outside of Silicon Valley (which is still the leading location).

When it comes to cybersecurity jobs, Tripwire says that Columbia is near the top of the list in the nation in per-capita terms, but behind Jersey City, NJ. And who wants to live there?

And metro Baltimore is nowhere on Forbes’s list of seven cities destined to be cybersecurity capitals of the world (though Washington, D.C., is, as is Silicon Valley).

That may be partly because, compared to most metro areas, the I.T. sector is a relatively small share of the overall economy in Baltimore, says economist Dr. Jacob Cosman, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School whose specialties include real estate, retail business, and spatial competition in cities.

“The share of jobs in I.T. in Baltimore looks less like Seattle or San Francisco and more like Cincinnati or Las Vegas,” he says. “Conversely, education and healthcare comprise a larger share of the workforce in Baltimore than most other metro areas.”

In fact, he says, though Tech jobs in Baltimore are relatively well-paid, and might then have outsized importance to the region’s tax base, “the concentration of I.T. jobs and I.T. firms is nowhere near the real centers of innovation and technology like Seattle and Silicon Valley,” he says. “The concentration of I.T. in Baltimore is not even near the level in smaller centers like Boulder, Madison, and Raleigh. Without that high density, it’s difficult to build the pool of specialized workers and financing that would accompany a legitimate hub of innovation.”

So why can’t Baltimore make all these dreamy geek-capital claims come true?

“The biggest obstacle is that other cities already have easy access to specialized workers and financing because they have a pre-existing hub of I.T. activity,” says Cosman. “In addition, it’s more difficult to attract highly paid, highly mobile workers to Baltimore because the city offers fewer of the amenities that high-income workers want. Some of this is geography—Baltimore will never have temperate winters, beaches, or easy access to wilderness—but some of that might change as the city develops more entertainment and cultural amenities.”

Of course, if we can curb our enthusiasm a bit, the Port Covington development is still good for the city, Cosman says.

“Even if the announcement makes some very optimistic claims, the fact that established firms want to occupy the office space in Port Covington is still overall good news,” he says. “The city government took a risk on the scale of hundreds of millions of dollars to finance development there. We can debate whether that was really the best use of the city’s scarce fiscal resources, but the city government has made that decision to commit those resources, and at least it seems like there is some demand for the development the city has financed. This is probably not Cyber Town, USA, but it is much better than empty space.”

Strains of a rare virus that has been blamed so far for killing 10 children and sickening dozens of others in New Jersey pediatric-care facilities have Baltimore doctors on alert for an outbreak here.

According to New Jersey state health authorities, there have been 27 cases of the adenovirus infection at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation center in Haskell, New Jersey, where the affected children had severely compromised immune systems. One death was a young adult.

The state also confirmed to the Associated Press four adenovirus cases among pediatric patients at New Jersey’s Voorhees Pediatric Facility, just across the river from Philadelphia, but preliminary tests suggest it’s a different strain of the virus.

The department said it’s working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor the illness and announced earlier this week that infection control teams were being sent to New Jersey’s four long-term pediatric centers to help with training.

At Baltimore hospitals, doctors are watching carefully for the spread of the virus, says pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. James Campbell, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“We have been following the events of this institutional adenovirus outbreak and our hearts go out to the patients, families, and staff [in New Jersey],” says Campbell. “Adenoviruses are a common cause of respiratory diseases and may also cause gastrointestinal illness. The illnesses they cause range from very mild to life-threatening. More common manifestations are things like the common cold, sore throat with pink eye, and ear infections. In some people, they can cause pneumonia, heart infections, or other serious diseases.”

Particularly at risk are those with compromised health, he says. “These more serious problems tend to occur in people with underlying medical problems or problems with fighting off infections. Institutional epidemics of pneumonia can occur in dormitories, military barracks, and other places, like chronic-care facilities.”

Campbell says adenoviruses are spread by “respiratory droplets,” just like other viruses that cause colds and pneumonias. “That means that you get them when people sneeze or cough near you or you shake hands or touch surfaces where others were sneezing or coughing,” he says. “The best way to reduce your risk of infection is by hand washing.”

At Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, infection prevention coordinator and R.N. Erica Jones echoed the increased danger such viruses pose to the very young, medically fragile, or hospitalized children.

Jones says that, besides hand washing (use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer when soap and water aren’t available), there are other steps people can take to avoid spreading viruses. “Avoid close contact with other people, especially infants or children who may be immune-compromised, stay home from work and school when you are sick to help prevent spreading illness, and cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing,” she says.

As someone who deals with very sick kids every day, Jones tries to empower parents to speak up for the safety of their children.

“Parents often tell me they are uncomfortable speaking up when strangers approach their infant or child wanting to touch their hands or belongings,” she says. “A well-intended gesture can prove harmful if germs are passed along. I also let parents know that when their child goes home, it is okay to remind family members and friends not to visit when sick and to wash their hands.”

Hospitals take other steps, too, to avoid spreading illnesses, says Dr. Aaron Milstone,
a Johns Hopkins Hospital epidemiologist and associate professor of pediatrics at Hopkins School of Medicine. “In a health-care setting, we also require our staff to wear personal protective equipment, such as gloves and gowns, when treating patients with contagious infectious diseases,” he says.

And they’re always on the lookout for such viruses: “Adenoviruses are common and can be detected with available tests, but at Johns Hopkins’ five hospitals in Maryland and Washington, D.C., we are seeing a low and typical number of cases.”

Think you have a great retail idea for a hip, up-and-coming ‘hood, but you’re a little short of cash? How does free rent sound? Or what if we throw in a fully finished space?

Okay, the rent’s only free for a while, but that’s the come-on that civic leaders in Remington are using to attract proposals from entrepreneurs to keep the neighborhood on track to a revitalization that’s been gaining speed in the past few years.

In a partnership with Johns Hopkins University and Seawall, a real-estate development firm founded by Thibault and Donald Manekin that specializes in readaptive use of Baltimore’s old structures, The Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA) is accepting applications for the Remington Storefront Challenge (RSC), a search for local entrepreneurs to launch temporary retail concepts in two storefronts in what’s becoming one of Baltimore’s hottest affordable neighborhoods.

The best big idea, as decided by the association, will get free rent for 12 to 24 months in one of two refurbished storefronts it has to work with, funding to help deck out the new spaces, plus technical assistance to get up and running.

But your plan for Baltimore’s first Scotch-tape store probably won’t fly. That’s because the project—which enjoys additional support from sponsors Central Baltimore Partnership, Howard Bank, and Younts Design—isn’t just looking for any retail business.

The RSC seeks businesses that are viable to Remington—specifically what the neighborhood says it needs and wants, according to board member and land-use committee member Joshua Greenfeld. Applicants with young businesses and new ideas will be asked to demonstrate their experience, passion, and ability to execute their business plan, including how their concept will increase foot traffic to the area, and complement existing businesses.

And, yes, the GRIA has had a few initial bites: “We have started to receive some really exciting applications,” says Greenfeld, “including some health and wellness providers with interesting community-based ideas.”

There’s no indication yet, though, that the pilot program will be expanded if it proves successful. “I hope there will be others, but I can’t say one way or the other,” says Greenfeld. “We’re trying to be very careful not to overpromise anything.”

The two RSC locations being offered up are fairly prime, location-wise: One is a 1,240-square-foot space at 300 W. 29th Street, on the corner of Remington Avenue, currently occupied by a Pizza Boli’s that’s about to relocate. The other is a 900-square-foot space with floor-to-ceiling windows at 2700 Remington Avenue, Suite 1100, in Remington Row, a mixed-use building with 108 apartment units, as well as retail and wellness businesses.

“We are looking to increase the diversity of business owners and retail options in the neighborhood,” said K.C. Kelleher, a member of GRIA who’s been active in the program. “We want to find the two concepts that best support the values and needs of our community.”

There’s a weather-related disaster, and within days, the interstates are being plied by long convoys of utility trucks and their crews, coming from other states to assist locally, or dispatched by BGE to help in such disasters elsewhere.

Mindful of how high your electricity bill is already, you have to ask yourself, “Who’s paying for that, anyway? Not me, right?”

BGE has, in fact, a long history of helping other states, and has also been on the receiving end of the deal on a number of occasions, in both cases because of mutual-assistance agreements between different utilities.

In the case of Florence, though Maryland sent resources including two National Guard helicopters and dozens of local Red Cross staffers, BGE got a pass.

“Everybody looks at the forecast,” says BGE communications manager Richard Yost, “and we might anticipate days before a storm hits being able to share certain resources to help another state. But we were also within the possible track of the hurricane, and the first priority is to take care of own customers.”

So the utilities in the Carolinas looked further afield to have extra crews on stand-by—this time including crews from Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas—in case the worst occurred. And it did, so far killing more than 40 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, setting records for rainfall from hurricanes in both Carolinas, and causing nearly $50 billion in damages.

But it was just a year ago that BGE helped out in a similar situation: More than 200 employees and contractors were deployed to help restore electric service to customers in the Southeast affected by Hurricane Irma, joining hundreds of others from sister companies owned by Exelon, BGE’s parent.

It’s gone the other way, too, such as in March when a powerful nor’easter caused more than 435,000 outages in the Baltimore metro area. Among those working around the clock to get the lights back on were crews from BGE’s Exelon sister utility ComEd in Illinois, as well as from 13 states including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Canada.

“It makes the utility industry pretty unique to have this system of cooperation to restore our systems as fast as possible,” Yost says.

But about that electric bill: No, it generally won’t be affected by the millions of dollars spent on trucks, travel, wages, food, and lodging for the crews sent to help another state: Says Yost, “All the costs of that are reimbursed by the requesting utility.”