Update 20:55: American Electric Power says electricity is expected to be restored early Thursday morning in much of central Ohio, moving the estimate up from late Thursday night.
The crews have made significant progress in repairing power lines that supply energy to the Columbus area, the statement said. These repairs will allow our team to begin restoring power to substations and customers in the Columbus area, starting in the early morning.
The AEP previously estimated a recovery time of 11:59 p.m. for much of central Ohio.
More than 230,000 American Electric Power customers were without power on Tuesday and Wednesday after deliberate power outages, including interruptions affecting more than 169,000 in the Columbus area, according to the AEP interruption map.
Heavily affected areas could expect a multi-day break, and bad weather could cause additional damage and additional interruptions, according to a report.
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The forecast for Thursday, notes AEP, includes high temperatures and the possibility of severe weather in the early evening hours. The electric company does not know what effects weather can bring, if any, but we have teams ready to work on any interruptions that may arise.
Thousands of residents of the Columbus area are facing a second day of power outages on Wednesday, although the area continues to experience a heat wave with temperatures rising to the upper 1990s.
AEP and other teams worked Wednesday to fix issues that forced the company to cut off power to an unprecedented number of customers in the Columbus area this week.
As of Wednesday afternoon, 135,000 AEP Ohio customers were without electricity, about 85,000 of them in central Ohio, from a peak of 230,000 on Tuesday.
Power returned to some areas on Wednesday, while other areas reported power returning and then shutting down again. AEP expects power outages to continue until Thursday night in Columbus; parts of Ohio will not be restored until Saturday.
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One of the hardest hit areas in Columbus is Morse Road near downtown Easton with 3,330 customer interruptions. Other areas with large interruptions include:
- 4943 customer interruptions on the south side between Groveport Road and Alum Creek Drive.
- 2513 customer interruptions on I-270 near Dublin-Granville Road on the north side.
- 2,007 customer interruptions in the University Quarter
- 2700 customer interruptions near Broad Street in the East
- 2759 customer interruptions on Fishinger Road in the West Side.
This was followed by a wave of storms and strong winds that blew through the area, along with scorching temperatures, making dealing with the interruptions even more painful for residents of the affected area.
AEP says the decision to cut off power in some neighborhoods was made to prevent the spread of outages and to make it even harder and longer to restore power.
“This is absolutely the last resort,” AEP spokesman Scott Blake said of the decision to turn off neighborhood power. “That’s the last thing we want to do.”
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Central Ohio was not alone in tackling the problem. Thousands were left without electricity in Cincinnati after strong storms and strong winds hit the area on Monday night, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
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NAACP requires responses from AEP at a press conference
Pastor John Coates, second vice president of the Columbus NAACP, said they had sought answers from the AEP as to why many lower-income areas and minorities appeared to be directly affected, including the Linden and Driving Park areas.
He said it had harmed people from a health point of view.
“There are others who are very vulnerable from a health point of view without electricity,” Coates said. “And we doubt how they decided to cut off power in the central city.”
NAACP President Nana Watson said the AEP had not responded to requests for talks with the Columbus NAACP sent through city officials. She said they had not seen or heard any information from the AEP about how they help people of color.
“It’s really insulting,” Watson said.
In the Driving Park pool, some residents expressed disappointment that they were not allowed into the pool. Around 3 pm on Wednesday, the pool does not accept additional guests, while the pool had to be closed to reopen at 4:30 pm
Aisha Matthews, 38, of E. Long Street, said people in her household were without electricity. She said she was glad the city was opening the pools, but expressed disappointment at the $ 2 fee she would have to pay to keep her place in line when the pool began to receive new guests.
She also expressed disappointment with the government’s priorities for providing adequate infrastructure in the city.
“This is the capital of the country. We are supposed to be the greatest city. We need to be more prepared, “Matthews said. “Are we talking about guns in schools and can’t even keep our infrastructure up to standard?”
Bernita Reese, director of Columbus Recreation and Parks, told a news conference Wednesday afternoon that a cooling station had opened at the Whetstone Community Center (3923 N High St.) because the Douglas Community Center (1250 Windsor Ave.) had lost power.
Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Mouse Roberts urged residents at the press conference to stay hydrated and find relief from the sun. On Tuesday, she said, the number of people admitted to the emergency department for heat-related injuries nearly doubled compared to previous days.
She said many different types of people are at risk of exposure to heat, including the elderly and people with comorbidities.
“These cooling centers are open to you, to everyone in our community,” Roberts said.
Mayor Andrew J. Ginter noted that most people have electricity in Columbus and there are things they can do to help those without, such as donating water, providing a cool place for neighbors, or offering to take someone to a refrigeration plant. He also asked people with electricity to consider raising the temperature of their thermostat to reduce the load on the grid.
At a news conference Wednesday at the Driving Park public pool, Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginter said his own power continued to fluctuate as AEP worked to restore power. He said city officials are monitoring the situation and continue to keep in touch with the AEP about restoring power.
Ginter said his message to AEP is that the city needs power as soon as possible and the city is focusing on rebuilding and resilient the grid. He added that the responsibility for the outage ultimately fell on AEP and the Ohio Utilities Commission.
“But we will continue to work with them to make sure we do our best for the people of Columbus,” Ginter said. “We’re doing a lot of unprecedented things to deal with unprecedented time.”
When asked at a news conference what he would say to people who may think that minority communities have been disproportionately affected by the disruptions, Ginter said the problem affects Columbus in general, not one area in particular.
“Well, I’ll look at the evidence and look at the data,” Ginter said. “I think people have been affected throughout the community.”
Chris Hogg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Columbus saw near-record temperatures Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday’s maximum temperature was 93 degrees, just one degree below the record of 94 degrees. Meanwhile, the highest temperature on Wednesday rose to 94 degrees, with a heat index of 105. The record for June 15 was set in 1897 at 96 degrees.
Hoag said the heat wave was coming to an end, with Thursday being the last day of the week with temperatures from the 1990s.
“We have a cold front moving in the middle of the afternoon,” he said. “So this will lead to scattered thunderstorms in front and then cooler air behind it for tomorrow night and the weekend.”
The strength of the Franklin County Shelter returns after hundreds of donations of ice, water and food from community members on Tuesday afternoon.
Thanks to the donations, the shelter has not lost a single dog from the heat, said Kay Perlinger, director of the Franklin County Shelter.
“We were absolutely overwhelmed by the support of this community,” she said. “Some of [these dogs] are alive only today because of the love for the period of our community. ”
The shelter lost electricity around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The staff thought that the building could regain its power soon after, but they could not wait long.
Generators were used in the operating rooms of the shelter to ensure that the operations carried out at that time could be completed safely. The dogs in the intensive care unit of the shelter were moved to air-conditioned vans and monitored.
Around 3:30 p.m., community liaison officer Les Wilson posted on the shelter’s Facebook page that the shelter was without power and needed ice to keep the dogs cool.
“The first bag came in twenty minutes,” he said. “After that, he just kept coming in.”
Donors brought everything from bags of ice, water and towels, and some even ordered food for the shelter for staff and volunteers.
AEP maintains constant contact with the shelter, Persinger said, and donates ice and water to dogs. The Ministry of Agriculture has disposed of generators that could power fans and AC devices, along with extension cords and gas, to keep the generators running.
They had enough ice for each dog to have a bag in their kennel. Some lay on it, others chewed the cubes, and some even …
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