Valley couple harnesses creative energy to endure loss of power

Most customers without power should have it restored by Sunday, FirstEnergy reports.

STAFF REPORT

EAST PALESTINE — Paul and Martha Powers — without heat and water — headed to a hotel at Mountaineer Park Racetrack in Newell, W.Va.

The Powerses — he’s 79, she’s 77 — lost electric service (OK, let’s go ahead and say it, the Powerses lost power) around 1:30 a.m. Thursday and were still without it mid-afternoon Friday. The outage was caused by a tree that fell across two lines not far from their house on North Market Street and plunged surrounding homes into darkness.

Winds that reached near 70 mph began roaring through the Mahoning and Shenango valleys Wednesday night and didn’t subside until Thursday morning. Toppled trees brought down power lines, leaving thousands without electric service.

Most customers should see their service restored today, with the balance having their lights back on Sunday, said Paul Harkey, First Energy spokesman.

The fierce winds lifted the Powers’ porch swing and rammed it through their deck railing. Paul said it looked like a sail as it kept going toward the road.

The Powerses — he’s a retired blacksmith, she’s a retired teacher— have a wood burner-boiler outside that supplies heat to the house, but it needs electric to operate, Martha explained. Same for water: They have a well, but the pump requires electric to run.

“We have a gas stove that can light with a match, so I could heat water for coffee,” Martha said. “We had dinner out on Thursday, not doing much cooking.”

The Powerses don’t have candles but, just last week, when remnants of the treacherous ice storm lingered and made walking dangerous, Martha bought Paul a battery-powered lantern to light his way to the shed to stoke the fire on the wood burner.

The trip to Mountaineer, meanwhile, means heat, dinner out and the ability to take long hot showers, they said.

Gamble? Sure, “We’ll support the cause,” Martha said, laughing.

First Energy crews were repairing the lines on North Market Friday afternoon just as the Powers, chilled to the bone, stacked their overnight bags by the door and Paul hunted for his keys.

“We’re not doing too bad, except for being frozen,” Paul said with a chuckle.

They’ve lost electric before, including a big windstorm last September, but this time it was longer and, in September, having no heat wasn’t a big deal, Paul said. Martha checked a thermometer and reported 56 degrees in the house — and that was with the borrowed kerosene heater going.

They have four sons who live close, “you could almost throw a stone and hit each house,” Martha said, but their electric has been out, too.

Some improvisation had to be employed to get water to horses on the property. One son took water from a small swimming pool.

The couple spent one night with Mark, the son who has a gas fireplace. He, though, didn’t have water, either, so no shower there.

“We need heat and a shower,” Martha said.

There’s a wedding shower this weekend in Poland for their youngest son’s eldest daughter. “I want a shower before I go to the shower,” Martha said with a grin.