CUYAHOGA and LAKE COUNTIES, Ohio (WJW) – Five days have passed since severe weather devastated communities in northeast Ohio, leaving much of the population without power.
Governor Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in eight Ohio counties on Saturday and mobilized resources to speed up recovery efforts, while line workers from 17 states continue to race against time to restore service to some 10,500 customers waiting for power to be restored as of 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
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FirstEnergy spokeswoman Lauren Siburkis said power has been restored to 90% of customers, a huge challenge given the extent of the damage. Crews are now focusing on outages in more remote areas.
“A lot of tree damage and a lot of that tree damage is in hard to reach areas,” Siburkis said. “In some cases, we can’t use our cherry picker to get out of those hard to reach areas. Instead, our workers have to rely on their climbing skills and manually climb up the mast and do the repairs without the cherry picker. So some of that work is very labor intensive and therefore a little more time consuming.”
Willoughby Hills residents are among the largest still without power. Resident Joe Frankhauser said they are getting through it, but it is frustrating.
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“I work from home and we don’t have internet,” he said. “It’s like having your arms chopped off, so I had to look for places where I could work and where there was Wi-Fi. It was tough. We’re getting by. The neighbors on the street were all excellent. If you need something, they have it. We’ve been through it enough times to know you just have to get on with it and get on with it.”
Siburkis said FirstEnergy is in the final stages of restoring power and progress is much faster than originally estimated.
“We originally set our estimated global restoration date for Wednesday and were able to meet it in two days,” Siburkis said. “We hope to have the majority of customers back up and running by tomorrow evening.”
The state of emergency declaration highlights the amount of resources needed in the eight affected counties. Kevin Friis, planning director for the Cuyahoga County EMA, said it will help cities and towns recover faster and potentially provide them with relief aid.
“We recognize that this is a serious incident and are requesting additional resources,” he explained. “We will continue to assess the damage by having both state and possibly federal teams come in to determine how much debris there is. What will be the process for removing the debris and its final disposal?”
FEMA has been asked to come to Northeast Ohio to conduct a damage assessment. County EMAs are currently working with local communities to conduct a public damage assessment for possible reimbursement.
“Our municipalities, cities and other governments are supposed to be compensated for all the cleanup work,” Friis said. “So, all the overtime, all the trucks, the labor, all that, and it looks like we’re probably going to achieve that goal.”
For damage assessments for homeowners, businesses, renters, and non-critical private nonprofit organizations, please contact your county emergency management agency (see Governor’s Office).
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