Power has been restored to nearly 261,000 of the approximately 311,000 FirstEnergy Corp. customers who experienced outages following severe storms that impacted the company’s service area on Sunday. The restoration efforts are ongoing, with FirstEnergy’s electric company personnel working in 16-hour shifts and receiving assistance from additional line workers and support personnel from outside the company.
The storm system brought heavy rain and strong winds exceeding 65 mph across parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. Western Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia suffered the most damage, with numerous broken poles, crossarms, and downed power lines due to tree-related incidents. Restoration work is expected to continue for several days in these areas.
Customers are advised to assume all downed or low-hanging power lines are energized and dangerous. They should maintain a distance of at least 30 feet from such lines and report them immediately by calling 911.
All internal line crews, hazard responders, forestry crews, contractors, safety personnel, and more than 330 additional outside lineworkers are involved in the restoration effort. Despite challenges like downed trees and road closures slowing progress, crews will continue their work around the clock until service is fully restored.
As of 10 a.m., current outage updates include:
– Penelec: Approximately 96,900 customers in northern and central Pennsylvania lost power; about 19,800 remain without service. Hardest hit areas like DuBois and Clearfield expect full restoration by Wednesday afternoon.
– West Penn Power: Around 54,500 customers in western Pennsylvania were affected; 17,200 still lack service. Areas such as Uniontown anticipate restoration by late Wednesday.
– Mon Power & Potomac Edison: About 44,000 customers in West Virginia experienced outages; fewer than 7,000 remain without power. Clarksburg expects restoration by Tuesday afternoon.
Many customers may have power restored sooner depending on local damage levels. Restoration updates for specific locations will be available on FirstEnergy’s outage map or via text updates for those registered.
FirstEnergy follows a structured restoration process prioritizing repairs that restore power to the largest number of customers first before addressing isolated issues affecting individual or small groups of customers.
For more information on outages or safety tips during storm recovery efforts, visit FirstEnergy’s Power Center online.
“FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence,” according to their statement about their services across several states including Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Contact details for further inquiries include Will Boye for Mon Power and Potomac Edison at (240) 707-0271; Todd Meyers for West Penn Power among others at (724) 838-6650.
