News
Majority Of AEP Customers Still WIthout Power
By: Associated Press, Fred Kight
Posted on:
UPDATE 6:55 p.m. American Electric Power released updated totals on the number of customers across the state that are still without electricity following Friday's storm.
Approximately 436,000 customers were without power as of 5 p.m. of the original 660,000 initially affected.
Numbers for Southeast Ohio include:
Athens County: 59 percent without power
Coshocton County 49 percent without power
Fairfield County: 56 percent without power
Licking County: 70 percent without power
Hocking County: 78 percent without power
Washington County: 60 percent without power.
A complete map and county-by-county breakdown is available at AEP's website.
UPDATE 10:20 a.m. American Electric Power is now reporting 185,000 power customers have electricity following the outage caused by Friday's storm.
More than 660,000 customers were affected by the power outages across the state.
In Southeast Ohio, 61 percent of Athens County is without power and in Fairfield County, only 37 percent of customers have restored electricity.
AEP lists Franklin, Delaware and Licking counties as hardest hit by the outages.
At last report, Licking County has 47,900 customers without electricity, or about 77 percent.
AEP indicates the effects of the storm are farther reaching than when storms from Hurricane Ike hit Ohio in 2008.
An official with the state Emergency Management Agency says more than 900,000 Ohio residents are without power one day after severe storms struck with powerful, damaging winds.
Tamara McBride of the Ohio EMA, said about 950,000 were without power Saturday evening.
American Electric Power reported 500,000 of its customers across Ohio, including much of Columbus and into West Virginia, were without power.
Gov. John Kasich has declared a state of emergency and called out the National Guard.
Kasich asked President Barack Obama for federal help Saturday, telling the president he would formally seek a federal declaration on top of his own state emergency declaration after Friday's storms.