TWINSBURG, Ohio – High winds accompanying Sunday evening storms toppled trees and power lines, leaving residents in one neighborhood completely isolated.
Along Liberty Road, large transmission lines that carry electricity to customers in Twinsburg, Twinsburg Twp., Remindersville and elsewhere toppled like dominoes, completely blocking the road and the only access into and out of the Liberty Ledges community.
Will Ford was at home in his kitchen when the storm hit.
On Monday morning, he realized he could not get out of his neighborhood to get to work.
“We are trapped. This morning, I was trying to get to work and, of course, I couldn’t. I realized all these lines and poles are down so nobody in the community had a way to get out; there’s only one way in and one way out,” said Ford.
A temporary access road was cut through to a neighboring Metropark picnic area so that at least one car at a time could get out of or into the community.
“Like an emergency exit, but it’s kind of tricky, because your car can get stuck on the last little stretch of it,” said Ford
Crews from Ohio Edison on Monday were beginning the process of replacing the poles and the lines but were advising residents that it could be days before the work is completed.
“What our guys are doing right now is they are removing all of that debris from the poles that are damaged. We will get that taken care of, then we have to put the new poles in, put the wires back up, double check it, then we can re-energize and hopefully bring those customers back on, but it is a very elaborate job to get that all taken care of,” said Mark Durbin.
Police and other safety services were operating on emergency generator power after losing electricity themselves.
“We are on a backup generator so we were able to function, but it was a struggle there for a little while because we were just inundated with calls when the event occurred,” said Twinsburg Police Chief Christopher Noga.
The city on Monday said the Twinsburg Fitness Center behind the high school and parts of the community center located behind the Chamberlin Middle School were open with power for residents who wanted shelter.
Christ the King Church on Ravenna Road was also opening its doors to residents who need heat and electricity.
Ohio Edison was advising residents that it could be as long as Thursday before all of the power is restored.
“What I think it comes down to is patience. I mean, it’s going to take time for Ohio Edison to get the power back up; it’s going to take time to clean up, but patience and just bear with us while we get all of this cleaned up,” said Noga.
**A look at other areas in Northeast Ohio that were damaged in the storms**
