FirstEnergy Corp. announced on Mar. 14 that nearly 478,000 of the approximately 655,400 customers who lost power following a windstorm across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland have had their service restored. The company said crews are working around the clock to restore electricity to all affected customers.
The restoration effort is significant due to widespread tree and equipment damage caused by winds exceeding 70 mph. FirstEnergy’s Ohio and western Pennsylvania service areas were hit hardest, with downed trees and road closures slowing progress. The company expects restoration work to continue over the next few days as crews address ongoing windy conditions and extensive damage.
More than 3,400 outside contractor line and forestry workers are assisting nearly 3,380 FirstEnergy employees in the restoration process. The company continues to coordinate with mutual aid organizations for additional support. Estimated restoration times will be established during the day, but many customers may see power return sooner depending on local conditions.
Current outage updates show that Illuminating Company has restored power to 69% of impacted customers in northeast Ohio; Ohio Edison has restored service to 77% of affected customers in northern and central Ohio; Toledo Edison has restored power to 80% of those impacted in northwest Ohio; Penelec has restored service to 87% of its affected customers in northern and central Pennsylvania; Penn Power has restored nearly 56% of outages in western Pennsylvania; West Penn Power has reached a restoration rate of 55%; and Mon Power has restored power to 78% of impacted West Virginia customers.
Customers are reminded by FirstEnergy to stay at least 30 feet away from downed or low-hanging power lines, report them immediately to emergency services, avoid removing debris from electrical equipment, use generators safely outdoors only, rely on flashlights instead of candles for lighting, and never use gas stoves or grills indoors for heat due to carbon monoxide risks.
FirstEnergy follows a formal process for storm recovery: clearing hazards such as downed lines and blocked roads first, repairing high-voltage lines next, restoring critical public facilities before addressing outages affecting large numbers of customers, then fixing localized issues last. Outages can be reported by phone at 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877), by texting OUT to LIGHTS (544487), or online at firstenergycorp.com/outages.
According to the official website, FirstEnergy focuses on corporate responsibility through environmental and community initiatives (official website). The company manages about 24,000 miles of transmission lines and over 269,000 miles of distribution lines (official website), serves more than six million customers (official website), operates across several states including New Jersey and New York (official website), aims for integrity and reliability supported by a diverse workforce (official website), and has been recognized as a compliance leader with awards for environmental efforts (official website).
As crews continue their work through challenging conditions, FirstEnergy encourages residents in affected areas to remain cautious until full restoration is complete.
