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.