News
Thousands Without Power As Ice Storm Pummels Area
By: Atish Baidya
Posted on:
UPDATE 9:55 a.m. AEP Ohio crews are working to restore power to thousands of customers in Southeast Ohio Wednesday after the lastest blast of winter weather hit the region overnight.
AEP Ohio says the storm coated power lines with up to half an inch of ice in some areas.
The power company says it brought in extra crews Tuesday afternoon from the northern part of the state in anticipation of the icy conditions expected in the region.
Crews are expected to have power restored to 90 percent of customers in Meigs and Vinton counties by 5 p.m. In Athens County it will be about 9 p.m. One hundred percent of customers in Ross, Scioto, PIke and Adams counties are expected to have power back on by 10 p.m.
AEP is asking customers without power to switch off the circuit breaker to major appliances prior to restoration of power to help avoid power surges and then wait about 10 minutes after restoration to turn the breaker back on.
AEP Ohio reported thousands without power in Southeast Ohio Wednesday morning as snow and ice weighed down powerlines.
The worst of the outages were in the southern part of the state where more than 2,000 were in the dark and Lawrence County that had more than 1,300 without electricity.
Nearly a thousands customers were without power just before 7 a.m.