Trumbull and Mahoning counties hard hit after storms move through area

Staff report

WARREN

As of 8 p.m. Sunday, more than 5,500 FirstEnergy customers were without power in Trumbull County and another 3,200 in Mahoning County lost electricity when two sets of storms came through the area late Sunday afternoon and again in early evening causing additional damage.

Mark Durbin, a spokesman for FirstEnergy, said it would likely be late today before everyone is back on line.

Durbin said the outages, caused by strong winds taking down trees and tree limbs damaging power lines were widely scattered in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

According to 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, Springfield Township in Mahoning County was particularly hard-hit.

FirstEnergy crews were working through the night assessing the damage and making repairs, said Durbin, who said he could not predict an exact time when repairs would be complete.

Trumbull County got slammed.

The Trumbull County 911 Center had so many call about trees down and homes without electricity that its calls rolled over to the Niles and Lordstown police departments, while those communities had very little storm-related problems.

Struthers in Mahoning County escaped large-scale power outages, but near-by west Campbell and East Youngstown in the Lincoln Knolls area along McCartney Road suffered massive power outages.

Traffic lights along Belmont Avenue corridor were out creating dangerous intersection, reported the Youngstown Police Department.