OHIO STORMS Round 2 cuts more power

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

When the lights began flickering during another bout of thunderstorms, Leo Welsh braced himself for his second power outage in three days and decided there was no point in getting upset.

The first outage at his Columbus home followed winds of up to 80 mph on Friday. While other Ohio residents were told they might be in the dark for days, Welsh’s outage lasted about 20 hours.

On Sunday, the second round of storms knocked out the lights throughout his neighborhood, including the ones that had remained on at the house next door, and Welsh figured it must be his turn to wait. So he packed the food from his refrigerator — plus the food his mother-in-law had brought over when her power went out — and carted it to his brother’s place in Grandview.

“Getting worked up about it is not going to make the power come on any sooner,” said Welsh, 33, a nursing home administrator. Still, he was repeatedly dialing home Monday, hoping to hear the sweet sound of the answering machine indicating his electricity was restored. By lunchtime, there was still no answer.

The Sunday storms expanded the outage lists by the thousands, including some Ohio homes and businesses where power already had been lost and restored.

Franklin County in central Ohio remains the hardest hit statewide with about 135,000 American Electric Power customers still without power.

AEP, Duke Energy and Dayton Power & Light reported just over 400,000 customers without power after the close of the business day.

Dayton Power & Light, with about 13,000 affected customers, was giving away ice to customers without power and predicted service would be restored by Wednesday night.

Pablo Vegas, president of AEP-Ohio, said crews will work through the holiday to restore power. Federal and state officials and relief workers were trying to determine the biggest and most urgent needs.

Gov. John Kasich declared a state emergency during the weekend, called out the National Guard and sought help from President Barack Obama, who declared a federal emergency in Ohio. Federal aid trucks carrying water were sent to six distribution points in southern and eastern Ohio.

About 200 National Guard members were going door-to-door in the Columbus and Dayton areas Monday to check on residents who might need help. Columbus planned to open fire hydrants at four spots Monday afternoon to help residents cool off.