CONNEAUT — Hundreds of Ashtabula County residents are still without power four days after a windstorm ripped across the area, but the vast majority should be back in service by Friday, officials said.
Between 600 and 800 county customers remain affected by outages caused when hurricane-force winds buffeted the region, said Mark Jones, Illuminating Co. area manager. The bulk of them will see service restored no later than Friday night, he said.
However, some properties where repairs are tricky may not be fixed until the weekend, Jones said.
“The remaining work is particularly labor-intensive,” he said.
Some 13,000 county residents were affected by outages that began around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, when the remnants of Hurricane Ike battered much of Ohio. Initially, more than 1 million customers within the FirstEnergy family of companies were affected. As of late Wednesday, 90 percent of repairs had been completed, Jones said.
Hard-hit areas included Conneaut, Orwell, Roaming Shores, Rock Creek, Ashtabula and Geneva, officials have said.
As the outage continues, residents are becoming increasingly frustrated. Food in now-warm refrigerators and freezers has been tossed, while others who rely on wells suffer water shortages because of idled pumps.
Some people aren’t content to wait for utility crews: Some take matters into their own hands. Pat Bryner of Caine Road in Pierpont Township helped repair workers pinpoint the problem in her neighborhood late Tuesday night.
Bryner and her 93-year-old mother had been without power since Sunday night but noticed homes in the area weren’t suffering.
“While driving home, I noticed everyone else’s lights were on,” she said.
Curious, Bryner traveled her road and discovered a utility pole bending at a dangerous angle “and maybe getting worse,” she said.
She called the Illuminating Co., and a short time later, crews arrived and confirmed that problems with the pole were denying service to Bryner and her neighbors. Power was restored around 2 a.m. Wednesday, she said.
Relief came too late to save Bryner’s refrigerated food, but at least her water well pump is fully functional, she said.
“We had to buy our water,” Bryner said.
The event was “a little hard” on Bryner’s mother, who was in good spirits during the ordeal, her daughter said.
Local News
Hundreds of county residents remain in the dark
Between 600 and 800 customers still don’t have power restored
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