AKRON, Ohio, Aug. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) utilities continue restoring power to customers affected by severe thunderstorms over the past several days. Six tornados were confirmed to have touched down within the company’s Ohio and Pennsylvania service area, and winds exceeding 70 mph in places coupled with flooding caused by more than four inches of rain significantly impacted the electric system.
More than 465,000 FirstEnergy customers lost power due to the storm, and about 87,300 customers remain without service. More than 3,600 FirstEnergy employees, contractors and outside resources are working around the clock on the restoration effort in the Illuminating Company, Ohio Edison, Penn Power and West Penn Power service areas. Additional resources will continue to move in this weekend to support restoration efforts.
As damage is assessed, estimated restoration times are being set for each electric company. The estimated restoration times represent when the majority of customers in an area are expected to have power restored. Many will have service restored prior to that time, based on the level of damage encountered in a particular area.
Some of the remaining repairs will restore only a few customers at a time, which makes completing restoration a time-consuming process. Due to the widespread damage caused by the weather, we have thousands of remaining outages that require hours of crew work to restore one customer at a time.
Updates by electric company:
- The Illuminating Company: Approximately 162,300 customers in northeast Ohio lost power due to the storms, and 50,100 customers remain without service. Power is expected to be restored to the majority of customers by 4 p.m. Wednesday, August 30.
- Ohio Edison: Approximately 188,600 customers in northern and central Ohio lost power due to the storms, and 27,900 remain without service. Power is expected to be restored to the majority of customers by 11 p.m. Monday, August 28.
- Penn Power: Approximately 7,200 customers in western Pennsylvania lost power due to the storms, and 1,300 remain without service. Power is expected to be restored to the majority of customers by 11 p.m. this evening.
- West Penn Power: Approximately 44,700 customers in western Pennsylvania lost power due to the storms, and 6,400 remain without service. Power is expected to be restored to the majority of customers by 6 p.m. tomorrow.
Customers who are without power can call 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877) or text OUT to 544487 to report their outage or click the “Report Outage” link on www.firstenergycorp.com.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
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