Thousands of workers from FirstEnergy, along with support from 17 states, are working around the clock to restore power to customers across Greater Cleveland following historic storms on August 6. Significant progress has been made in removing trees and debris, facilitating the intricate work required to restore service in the hardest-hit areas.
More than 627,700 customers across FirstEnergy’s footprint in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey lost power due to storms that brought multiple tornadoes and widespread straight-line winds. Approximately 430,000 of those affected were in Northeast Ohio.
All of FirstEnergy’s Ohio crews were prepared when the storm hit Tuesday as none had been sent south for response to Hurricane Debby. They have now been joined by outside assistance from 17 states – including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, New York, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia and Kansas – forming a contingent of approximately 7,570 total workers. About 6,000 of these workers are operating in The Illuminating Company territory with approximately 1,550 in Ohio Edison territory. As work is completed in one area additional crews will move to assist The Illuminating Company.
Updates by electric company as of 10 a.m.:
The Illuminating Company: Power has been restored to 198,400 of the approximately 310,000 customers in Ashtabula Cuyahoga Geauga Lake and Lorain counties who lost power due to the storms. About 112000 customers remain without service. While the global Estimated Time of Restoration (ETR) for most customers is Wednesday August 14 at 11:30 p.m., most customers currently without power will have service restored before that time. More detailed ETRs are being established as additional information about necessary repairs becomes available. Customers can view their current individual ETR by logging into their account at firstenergycorp.com texting STAT to 544487 or viewing the outage map at firstenergycorp.com/outages.
Ohio Edison: Approximately 118100 customers in northern and central Ohio lost power due to the storm with more than 99% having had their power restored. The approximately 600 customers who remain without power are expected to have service restored by 11:00 p.m. tonight.
Customers who are without power can call 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877) or text OUT to 544487 to report their outage or click the "Outages" link on firstenergycorp.com.
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