Lightning causes power outage in Western, Pa., and Columbiana

COLUMBIANA — A power outage that started in Western Pennsylvania after an overnight storm spread into Eastern Ohio, knocking out service to a total of more than 13,000 Ohio Edison customers.

Paul Harkey, Ohio Edison area manager, said lightning was responsible for the failure of a 69,000-volt transmission line in the Chippewa-Enon Valley area in Pennsylvania around 8:30 a.m. Saturday, disrupting service to 6,000 Pennsylvania customers.

That outage eventually affected an extension of the same power line at a substation in Columbiana, cutting service to 7,138 Ohio customer around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Harkey said.

Service was restored to Pennsylvania customers at 8:31 p.m. Saturday and Ohio customers had power restored nine minutes later, he said.