More than 230,000 American Electric Power customers went without electricity Tuesday afternoon after intentional outages were made to protect the power grid, including outages that affected more than 169,000 in the Columbus area, according to the AEP Outage Map.
One of the most affected areas in the city is E. Hudson Street near I-71 in Linden, where 6,454 customers are without electricity. Other areas with major disruptions include:
- 5,063 customer outages on Innis and Agler Roads in Linden.
- 5,324 customer outages on E. 17th Avenue near the Ohio Expo Center and State Fair and Ohio History Center, with
- 3,542 customer outages on N. High Street in Clintonville.
- 5,850 customer outages on the South Side near US 23 and Gantz Road.
- 2,878 customer outages near McKinley Avenue on the West Side.
It followed a flurry of storms and strong winds that blew the area, along with scorching temperatures, making handling outages even more painful for residents of the affected area.
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Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Geitter said the division has received dozens of reports of fire alarms and elevator rescues throughout the city, possibly due to the outages.
Central Ohio wasn’t alone in tackling the problem. In Cincinnati, thousands of people were left without electricity after severe storms and strong winds hit the area Monday night, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
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Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther among those who lost power
If you were out of power last night, you weren’t alone. The city’s mayor, Andrew J. Ginther, was too, according to a post he posted on social media.
In a separate tweet, he urged residents to “be patient, take advantage of @ColsRecParks cooling centers and pools tomorrow and check out your neighbors.”
Three branches of the Columbus library opening late Wednesday
The Columbus Metropolitan Library announced Wednesday that branches on Karl Road, Linden and South High will open later due to power outages. Branches on Karl Road and Linden opened at 11:00, while the South High branch will open at 12:00. The Driving Park branch was also supposed to open, but it lost power at 11:00, media specialist Ben Zenitsky said.
Parts of the South Side affected by power outages, heat
Several traffic lights on South High Street south of 104 in the far South Side were not powered on Wednesday morning.
The South High branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library had no electricity, but was restored at around 10:00, Zenitsky said.
Starting at 10:30 am, businesses along South High Street have power like Lowe’s, Kroger, and Walmart. However, the flea market on South Side Drive-In ended early around 9am, as it is usually open until 1pm
In South Linden, McGuffey Road’s Michell Wiley said Wednesday morning that she ran out of electricity from 3:00 pm Tuesday to 8:45 am Wednesday. She said she spent Tuesday night with her daughter who lives near the streets of Brice and Refugee in the Far East, where the power was. Wiley also took her 78-year-old mother, who lives on Jefferson Avenue in the Linden area, to the Hilton at Polaris.
“It wasn’t good,” Wiley said of the power loss. He thinks it wasn’t fair that his neighborhood with its least expensive homes was targeted for a power outage. “They think less than we do,” she said.
Meanwhile, the light was off at 11am on Wednesday along Summit Street in Italian Village at the intersections of East 1st and East 2nd avenue and Warren Street in Italian Village.
Nate Schweitzer was walking along the Summit. He lives on North 4th Street and said he lost power only 20 minutes ago.
“What else am I going to do?” said Schweitzer, 35, who works from home and wrote to his office about him that he has lost power.
When will the power be restored?
American Electric Power says electricity may not be restored until Thursday night in much of central Ohio.
Hard-hit areas can expect a multi-day outage, and adverse weather conditions can cause further damage and additional outages, according to a release.
According to AEP, power should be restored in:
Central Ohio
- Northeast Columbus – Thursday at 11.59pm
- Northwest Columbus – 11:59 pm Thursday
- Southeast Columbus – Thursday at 11.59pm
- Southwest Columbus – 11:59 pm Thursday
- Delaware – 3:30 pm Wednesday
Southeast Ohio
- Athens – 3pm Wednesday
- Crooksville – 1pm Wednesday
- Marietta – Thursday 17:00
- McConnelsville – 5pm Thursday
- Pomeroy – Thursday at 11.59pm
Southern Ohio
- Chillicothe – Friday noon
- Hillsboro – Wednesday noon
- Lucasville – Friday noon
- Wellston – Friday noon
Eastern Ohio
- Belmont – 11pm Friday
- Coshocton – 11pm Saturday
- Mt. Vernon – 11:59 pm Friday
- Newark – Thursday at 11:59 pm
- Zanesville – 4pm Friday
Are the power outages down?
Asked if the outage was the result of a drop, AEP spokesman Scott Blake said it “wasn’t necessarily” a drop, which he said was a technical term that didn’t apply to the situation.
Due to the severe storm and winds of the past few days and extreme heat, some lines became stressed and had to be shut down to prevent further extensive damage to the power line, Blake said. When lines are damaged, they disconnect and other lines are stressed when the power load does not transfer easily.
Columbus extends hours in select community centers, swimming pools, splash guards due to the heat wave
With dangerously high temperatures this week, Columbus Recreation and Parks will open extended-hour cooling centers in five regional community centers from today through Thursday.
Some city pools and splash pads will also have extended hours, city officials announced Tuesday.
According to the Wilmington office of the National Weather Service, the city facilities are escaping from the heat that was expected to reach 95 degrees on Tuesday, with a heat index of up to 109. Wednesday temperatures will rise to 97 degrees, with a heat index of 106 while Thursday will rise to 95 degrees.
Find out more here.