AEP Ohio has restored power to more than 185,000 of the
660,000 customers affected by the catastrophic storms that moved through the state June 29. Approximately 475,000 customers remain without power at 10 a.m. today.
At the height of the storm, thunder, lightning and high winds of more
than 80 mile per hour, knocked down transmission structures, poles, power lines and trees across AEP Ohio’s service territory. The central Ohio counties of Franklin, Delaware and Licking were the hardest hit, with approximately 345,000 customers affected.
AEP Ohio has more than 1,800 AEP Ohio and outside line resources and more than 300 various support personnel committed to restoring power to the customers who remain without service from the storm. The company will continue efforts to bring in additional resources as they become available to bolster the number of outside resources already deployed to restore power or still en route. Competition for available outside resources has been heavy because of the number of states affected by the event.
On Saturday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich declared a state of emergency for the entire state. Today, the state Emergency Management Agency will go door-to-door – with help from the Ohio National Guard and Ohio Departments of Aging and Health -- to check on residents of senior citizen housing complexes and AEP Ohio customers who have registered health conditions with the company.
The event affected not only Ohio but much of the eastern U.S. Damage
reports indicate this storm is a larger event than Hurricane Ike that hit
Ohio in September 2008. Ike affected approximately 650,000 of AEP Ohio’s 1.5 million customers.
During Ike, wind speeds were recorded in the 75 mph range. Restoration for the majority of the customers affected by Hurricane
Ike was completed in about a week.
The latest assessment report for the June 29 event shows that 426
distribution circuits out were out of service from the storm. A
distribution circuit will carry anywhere from several hundred to several
thousand customers. Crews have restored 126 of those to service. Of the
300 circuits still out, 81 are related to transmission line outages.
