Inner Harbor shops, hotels lose power

Hotels and other businesses in Baltimore's Inner Harbor lost power for three hours yesterday evening when an underground cable stopped carrying current and had to be repaired, a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. spokesman said.

Art Slusark said the downtown cable stopped working at 4:36 p.m., cutting power to such clients as the Harbor Court Hotel, the Gallery and some of the University of Maryland campus buildings west of the harbor.

Mr. Slusark said that the cable was repaired and power restored by 7:30 p.m. and that the problem was not related to high temperatures. "We had plenty of power," he said.

In an unrelated failure, minor thunderstorms in Carroll, Anne Arundel and Howard counties caused about 1,000 customers to lose power briefly in the afternoon.