PARMA, Ohio — Stuck in the dark for days — it’s a reality many across Northeast Ohio are dealing with after the powerful August storm that knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of homes.
Data from FirstEnergy shows the storm took nearly half a million houses off the grid statewide at one point. The peak outages hit more than 470,000, while the number was still over 300,000 more than 24 hours after the storm had passed.
"We know people really want their power back on, and we're doing our best," FirstEnergy spokesperson Hannah Catlett insisted.
It's a message the company has been forced to repeat over and over again since the storm began on Tuesday afternoon. While Northeast Ohio isn't immune from strong storms during the summer months, it wasn't the torrential downpour that did the damage.
"It was the high winds that brought down a lot of trees that toppled over power lines," Catlett said. "Sometimes the utility pole came down with it."
For customers asking, "When will my power get restored?" FirstEnergy uses a system that restores power in heavily populated areas first, so complaining or campaigning won’t get the job done any faster.
"They move to the outages that affect the biggest chunk of people," Catlett explained. "We want to get the repairs done in the areas where more people are going to get back up online."
The work might not be happening as fast as anyone wants, but FirstEnergy says it's not for lack of effort. The company is paying workers overtime to work 16 hours on — a double shift — before getting eight hours off.
They've also brought in outside help.
"We are trying to bring in crews from out of state, Michigan and Indiana," Catlett told 3News. "We've asked hundreds of tree crews to come and help us, hundreds of line crews."
FirstEnergy also urged customers to stay away from downed power lines and to be careful when hiring anyone to do clean up work. The proper equipment, training, and safety measures are essential for any post-storm activity.
"Safety is our top priority," Catlett said. "Always."
FirstEnergy believes it could be until sometime next week before every household is brought back online. That would mark almost one week since the original storm to have power fully restored.