CLEVELAND, Ohio — A spokesperson for First Energy said they've already restored power to around 200,000 people Thursday after storms Tuesday sent portions of northeast Ohio into disarray causing widespread outages and damage.

What You Need To Know

  • Tuesday afternoon storms left hundreds of thousands in northeast Ohio without power

  • A spokesperson with First Energy said they have already restored power to around 200,000 people

  • She also aknowledged that many more are still waiting

  • She said this is the largest impact they've had from a thunderstorm since 1993

FirstEnergy spokesperson Hannah Catlett said they have restored power for many, she aknowledged that many more are still waiting.

“We’ve been working around the clock to get people restored, get their power back on," Catlett said. "We’ve restored power to about 200,000 people already. Unfortunately, we still have about 258,000 to go in northern Ohio.”

She said the majority of those are Illuminating Company customers but that around 10,000 are Ohio Edison customers. 

The Illuminating Company, she said, has set an estimated restoration time as next Wednesday, Aug. 14. by 11:30 p.m. However, they expect thousands to regain their power before then as that is the estimated time for the entire company. She suggested checking the outage map for information on neighborhoods as more specific estimates come in.

Ohio Edison customers, she said, can expect to have their power restored by tomorrow evening.

“But again, our crews are out there. They know how important it is for people to have their power, and they want them to have their power back," Catlett said. "We’ve brought in thousands of contractors that are out there tonight, working for us to help with the restoration as they go forward the next couple of days.”

The last 48 hours, crews have been focused on clearing hazards and making sure they can do their work safely, she said. That includes getting trees of power lines and out of roads, navigating closures and damage to backyards. That's all making this take extra time. 

She reminded customers that the linemen working on fixing this outage have a vested interest in solving it, that they have their own families stuck in the dark, too. She said they're working their hardest, around the clock, to solve the problem.

She also reminded customers to stay safe, avoiding any downed power lines.

“This is the largest impact that we’ve had from a thunderstorm since 1993," Catlett said. "That’s more than 30 years that we have not seen numbers this high.”

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