(WJW) — Thousands of Ohioans, including those in Northeast Ohio, are still without power Sunday night as high winds ripped through the state on Saturday.
FirstEnergy is reporting around 45,000 outages for the state, at around 10 p.m., which is fewer than it was at the height of Saturday afternoon with crews working around the clock.
The Illuminating Co. posted on Facebook that there are thousands of damage locations, including hundreds of broken poles and downed spans of power lines.
“At this stage, our main priority is clearing hazards – such as downed power lines, downed trees and equipment blocking the roads – so that our line crews can access the site of an outage and begin to safely make repairs,” the post reads. “This can be a time-consuming process.”
About 78,500 Illuminating Co. customers in Northeast Ohio lost power. Over 20,000 of those customers still didn’t have power at 3 p.m. Sunday. Service should be restored to most customers by 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
About 152,900 Ohio Edison customers in northern and central Ohio lost power. As of 3 p.m. Sunday, about 53,300 of those customers still didn’t have power. Service should be restored to most by 4 p.m. Wednesday.
In an update Sunday afternoon, FirstEnergy said power had been restored to about 293,000 of the 454,000+ customers who lost power involving nearly 2,000 line crews, forestry contractors and other personnel are engaged in the restoration effort.
If you see downed power lines, stay away and call 911.
Counties with the most outages include:
- Trumbull
- Mahoning
- Stark
- Ashtabula
- Geauga
- Cuyahoga
Meanwhile, Cleveland Public Power says they’ve restored power to the majority of their customers, but you are encouraged to call 216-664-3156 if your power is still out. Crews are still working on wires down.
A high wind warning and wind advisory had been issued for several counties until midnight Saturday. Southwest winds were forecasted to reach 25 to 35 mph with up to 60 mph gusts.
Stay with FOX 8 for the latest developments.
