CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — We’re now 3 days removed from Friday’s storms and there are still thousands of people without power headed into Monday evening.
As of 4:30 p.m. Monday, FirstEnergy’s outage map reports there are 2,792 people without power in Cuyahoga County, a number that’s been decreasing steadily as power crews restore power across the Heights.
The outages were the result of a microburst that brought straight line winds that reached up to 80 mph according to National Weather Service estimates.
“We were actually on our side porch,” said Michelle Brown who was outside when the line of severe thunderstorms rolled in Friday. “We kind of ran inside because the wind got so strong. It was really scary.”
She wasn’t the only one caught off-guard by the high winds.
“I was inside and the winds, the limbs hit my roof. I thought it was coming in on me,” recalled John Donoghue, a Cleveland Heights resident. “I leaped up and I ran downstairs.”
The brought down tree limbs that ended up on cars, ripped apart power lines, and caused road closures that continued into Monday.
“We had to zig-zag through the neighborhood because so many streets were closed,” said Brown.
The city is now filled with tree removal companies and power restoration crews who still have their hands full – working 16 hours days until the job is done. Gene Jordan has been through this before and appreciates electricity a little more each time.
“We’ve been here since 1975, so we’ve run into lots of storms where we’re out of power for 3, 4 days,” said Jordan.
This time around, he has two generators that helped get through the darkness. Fortunately for him, the power in his home came back on Monday afternoon.
But there are plenty still waiting.
The power is still out. They’re saying anytime between 4 o’clock today and 4 o’clock tomorrow,” said Brown.
But it’s not all bad. Having such destructive damage and loss of power tends to bring people together.
“It was before the [sound of] chainsaws,” recalls Donoghue thinking back to Saturday morning. “ Everybody was out talking to everybody. It was this great sense of community. People saying ‘hey I’ve got a generator if you need to hook up.’”
A sense of community that can only be realized by people with a similar problem – no power.
FirstEnergy estimates all power will be restored by Tuesday evening. Cleveland Heights officials are also providing updates on the city website.