More than 100,000 people are without power in central Ohio as of 11:15 a.m. after early morning thunderstorms moved through the area. An additional 20,000 are without power across the rest of the state.
As of 11:15 a.m. Aug. 11, about 93,000 Franklin County AEP Ohio customers were without power, according to a live outage map from the company. Ohio is the hardest hit state in the storm's path, according to Matthew Bennett, the managing director of operations for AEP Ohio.
In Licking County, 10,000 customers are without power. In Fairfield County, about 2,300 are without power and in Perry County, about 3,600 are without power as of 11 a.m. Aug. 11. Central Ohio has the highest concentration of outages in the state.
The longest-standing outage began
at about 6:30 p.m. in Franklin County last night, according to Bennett, who said those individuals are still without power.
Outages are caused by downed trees due to the wet ground, lighting strikes, vehicle collisions and high winds. Bennett warned about the dangers of downed power lines, which could still be electrified and therefore incredibly dangerous. Anyone who observes a downed power line should call 911 or AEP.
As of 7:30 a.m., the company expected power to be restored by 3:30 p.m. for Franklin County customers. Licking County customers could see power restored by about 9:45 p.m., while some in Perry and Fairfield Counties may have to wait until 11 p.m., according to the live outage map. Depending on how the storms continue, Bennet said some may not have power back until Aug. 12.
In the case of an outage, Bennett said individuals can try turning resetting their breakers, but usually with a storm this size the issue can only be fixed by trained AEP crews. Outages can be reported online at aepohio.com.
Across the state, Bennett said there are about 20,000 crews actively working to address power issues. Some of these crews have come from Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia and Kentucky to aid in the power restoration effort.
Bennett said although AEP crew members are highly trained on how handle large outage situations like this one, it will still take them some time to get every issue resolved.
"Give us a little bit of patience," Bennett said. "Our crews will absolutely be out there working as hard as they can to make sure we restore this power as quickly and safely as possible."
Several rounds of thunderstorms are forecast for the area Aug. 11, with damaging winds expected especially in the afternoon and early evening hours. Those storms could cause "widespread power outages" according to the National Weather Service, and flash flooding risks could continue through the next morning.
Only one or two storms of this size hit central Ohio every year. The last comparable storm was in March, which had significantly more outages at about 400,000 across Ohio and was one of the largest storms in Ohio history, according to Bennett. The outages during this storm are not expected to reach that number.
Public safety and breaking news reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
Dispatch reporter Lilli Malone can be reached at lmalone@dispatch.com or on Instagram at @lillimwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Central Ohio power outages hit more than 100,000 as storms roll through
