Ohio Warriors Without Power Right Now

[Tracy Yates]

I just wanted to make a quick post to everyone that Gov. Ted Strickland has declared a "state of emergency" as power has been blown out across the mainly central portion of Ohio and that many of my fellow Ohioan Warriors may not be able to access the internet.

I've just checked my local online news station and even many local state public libraries are also closed without any power. It may take up to a week to restore many residential and commercial customers' service as reported by the local news source.

So, please, be patient Warriors with any other fellow Warriors that reside in Ohio as they may be now without power from the remnants of hurricane Ike.

My power was out yesterday and luckily enough, I was on one of the "main power grids" and so I now have power and can post this.

Thankfully, there have been no reports yet of any injuries or deaths caused by the high winds. I can tell you that there is plenty of damage though across the state and trees were literally ripped from the ground.

If you want to see what's happening, you can go to WBNS 10TV : Home - WBNS-10TV, Central Ohio's News Leader , a local Columbus, OH news station to view further details.

Hang in there my Ohio brethren.


Tracy

[RyanLeisure]

That's a bummer. I'm in NW Ohio and I've had power all day.

[jasonl70]

Hey Tracey! I live in New Albany, and happened to be up in Ann Arbor while this blew through.. I'm not going to bother heading back with my son until powers up - any news? I'll check wtvn's site, etc, but figured i'd ask someone in the area as well..

[Chuck Evans]

Our corporate office in Brunswick has power, nothing out of the ordinary there.

chuck

[Dan C. Rinnert]

I'm north of Cincinnati. We had out power out at home for several hours. At the office, we had power out for over 24 hours. We now have power at both places, but we're still in the minority. There are still a lot of homes and businesses without power. And streets closed due to down power lines, as well as streets that don't have functioning street lights.

It's estimated that it will be several days yet before power is completely restored to everyone.

There were winds up to 80 mph out this way. We don't have it anywhere near as bad as those further South who took the full force of the hurricane, but it is unusual for us, as far inland as we are, to have such powerful leftovers. A local weatherman said it was due to the remnants of Ike moving in at the same time a cold front was coming in, and they combined.

Downed power lines, downed trees, roof damage. I heard one woman somewhere in Ohio was killed by a branch flying through the air. Another was killed in a house fire, possibly caused by a candle used for lighting.

[Tracy Yates]

I know I saw a huge tree snap right in half and never have I seen such strong wind gusts, even during "severe weather" that was capable of producing tornadoes!

It was really crazy. Not one drop of rain came either, as was earlier predicted, so I suppose we got a break there, but seeing the trees down all over, crushed cars, houses ripped open, it was totally nuts!


Tracy

[dbarnum]

Hi,

Prayers and all good everything = very welcome! Just posted about our Ohio problem in a Kentucky thread, where more people are suffering in a simlar manner (so please send prayers there, too!)

And hey, Tracy, you ARE lucky!

Here's our update:

Power is out in our Columbus / Hilliard area for about a week. Fun!

We're helping in many ways: our generator has 4 lines: we use 1 and farm out 3 to other households to help them keep their frigs running and essentials. (Using Verizon broadband for the web - -heaven-sent service for sure!)

Extra money and items going to help them, too -- gas $$ for generators, batteries, ice for freezers and those with no generators, etc.

Plus lots of time & elbow grease being used to help with cleanup and storing food in our frig for others, etc.

Plus we have offline companies here that have had to temporarily shut down due to no power = income loss there.

To make it worse, our AEP Ohio division did not plan ahead at all and should have, as we have a history of power outages for every storm, even the smallest, in Hilliard. Yet they sent our crews to Texas and left us stranded (thanks ) Then when you call to complain, they say, “Well AEP workers from Texas are coming to help,” but you have to catch them in this lie and reply, “Yes, but they are OUR OHIO AEP WORKERS - - duh!!!!!!!!!” then they shut up, and apologize.

Needless to say, many in my own state are ticked. So prayers -- and good AEP Workers - are most welcome

[Don Schenk]

I live on the North end of Greater Cincinnati, and Duke Energy is telling us we will not have power at home until Saturday.

I do have power here at the office, about 15 minutes away.

Duke has a phone number to call, and the menu asks for your phone number. They then tell you when your service will be restored.

Don

[valerieSONORA]

Wow I had no idea Ohio was effected too. I have an aunt in Ohio, better check on her.

I hate not having power and I've never been without a few hours max without power so I can't imagine a whole week. I don't know what people will do having to go a whole week without power. Maybe we should join the Amish. At least the Amish know how to handle life without the technologies we are used to. Or at least get a generator. Don't even have a clue how to use a generator.

I hope everyone gets their power back and things back to normal ASAP. And no more hurricanes and terrible storms

[dbarnum]

Wow, we have power now! IM provider WOW (wide open west), electricity - the whole 9 yards - - -yeah!

Hang in there, Don. AEP told us it would be next Tuesday. So maybe you'll get yours faster, too. Fingers crossed for you and everyone else!


(Gosh, someone needs to make the larger generators out there less noisy - I mean, can you add a muffler or something?)

[Don Schenk]

Quote: "(Gosh, someone needs to make the larger generators out there less noisy - I mean, can you add a muffler or something?)"

Our next door neighbor has one, and yes I was surprised at how noisy it is. Fortunately the houses are 200 ft apart and our bedroom is on the side of our house away from that neighbor.

However, my better-half wants us to acquire a generator for the next time the electric goes out. We will become noise makers too. :-)

Of the five different ways to drive out of the area where we live, only one was open to traffic until this morning because of large trees laying across the roads.

The wires for telephone, electric, and TV-cable look like a cat's cradle gone bad.

At lunchtime I left the office to pick up lunch somewhere, drove 2 miles east but not one restraurant was open. I then backtracked and went another 2 miles west - same thing. Another mile south - nothing open. No electric.

So I drove back through a different part of town and found one Skyline Chili resturant open.

Paul Myers will be jealous. Skyline is his favorite.

Don

[dbarnum]

Yep, wow, are those generators LOUD, though. I mean it’s like having a lawn mower going in your home. Whew! Gotta put the garage door down and bring cords in from the garage / back door areas.

We countered our embarrassment of the noise by asking those closest if they wanted to plug in Hence we hooked up lines for our surrounding neighbors plus after several hours, lent the generator out across the street so they could get their frig up to par again, too. Needless to say, you had to watch your step walking around between the homes!

But then its fun wandering around your home in the early AM darkness with a flashlight, trying to figure out how to take an upstairs shower where your don’t bring your generator cords…light with a candle or flashlight pointing upwards or go for it in the dark? If you really want fun, have multi-focal lenses and play around tilting your head to try and see things you won’t trip over in candle light.

How those pioneers got around is a wonder?! And they had no Skyline Chili, either. Incredible survivors those early folks, eh?!

[nursewriter]

I am in southern Ohio, east of Cincy...Our whole city was without power for about 15 hours Sunday afternoon into Monday. There are still areas that will not have electric until the end of the week.

Thank God, no one was hurt but trees are down all over the place...huge trees were plucked from the ground like it was nothing.


I went out Sunday afternoon briefly when the winds were howling and I was amazed at the number of people and little kids who were outside. I don't understand why you would let your kid ride his bike around town in 70mph winds!

I promptly came back inside and told my husband I was not leaving the house again and an hour later we were out of power.

It is really fun trying to grill out hamburgers in the dark!!

Lucinda

[jimmymc]

It's amazing how that storm skipped around. Here in Eastern Ok we were expecting the worst but only got light rain for a day and night...no wind. My son called yesterday from just North of Houston and they didn't know when the power would be on and can't even get an estimate from the power company. Fortunately he didn't have much damage.

Buying a generator is the cheapest insurance against losing power... I bought one five years ago expecting a massive forecast ice storm. I haven't even started it yet. Not complaining but before we usually lost power about once a year.

jimmymc

[coondog1y]

I'm in Cincinnati and it's been crazy the amount of people without power. The highest numbers I think were somewhere around 650K or 700K people here without power in the Cincy area.

Many, many schools are closed, roads are still closed with down power lines, and several malls were still closed through last night.

We definitely aren't used to preparing for Hurricane force winds in Ohio!

[Melody]

I am also in Cincy - Western Hills (the locals will know the area!) and we had to evacuate the place Sunday afternoon, as trees were literally flying by the house! After the 4-story tall 100yr old behind the house came crashing down, I grabbed the cat, the laptop and the hubby and headed for a treeless hotel (and no, do not ask if that order of grabbing is accurate...)

The hotel had no power but no flying trees either, so it was okay. We had power when we came home yesterday around 10am, but the phones and internet were out until last night.

On a more positive note - since we have so many Warriors in the Cincy area now - how about a get together???

[mmurtha]

Hi Tracey,

Yeah, we were down too until around 11:30 last eve.

But there are still many without power around us. The problem here is that most of this area is farm land, and most farms have wells so they don't have any fresh drinking water or water to flush and bath with.

Thank goodness the damages weren't that bad compared to Texas, etc ...

Anyway, everyone is in our thoughts and prayers here.

God's speed guys ...


Mary

[Tracy Yates]

You're so right Mary. Last check was still around 239,000 or so without power in the Central Ohio area ( I'm watching NBC4 local news right now for updates ).

There's been at least 6 deaths reported that may be a result of the downed trees, and a man in Hilliard who was electrocuted by trying to repair a generator at a juvenile detention center. Very sad stuff.

And there have been countless "close calls" reported also as trees were ripped either in half or straight out of the ground that had been standing for many, many years.

In fact, at this moment, Columbus City Schools are again not having school in session tomorrow. This makes day 3 of no school. Normally, this only happens when it's snowing, so you know it must be pretty bad.

Keep the faith my fellow Buckeyes. We'll make it through!

And God be with all those in Texas and every other state that's been affected so badly from this horrendous storm.


Tracy