CLEVELAND — FirstEnergy’s Ohio President, Torrence Hinton, provided an update on the company’s progress in restoring power to thousands of Northeast Ohio customers Friday morning, saying most customers will have their power back on by next week.
“We’re working around the clock to get our customers restored,” Hinton said. “Many of us can empathize with our customers who remain without power because we, too, live and work within these local communities.”
REMAINING OUTAGES
As of noon Friday, the following counties were dealing with power outages:
- Cuyahoga: 126,651
- Ashtabula: 2,165
- Geauga: 15,503
- Lake: 24,978
- Lorain: 6,237
- Summit: 94
- Trumbull: 407
You can watch the news conference here:
Around 10 a.m. Friday, 205,000 customers had power out of the 470,000 customers affected by the storm, according to the company.
Hinton says over 95% of customers can expect power restoration by Aug. 14 at 11:30 p.m. Clearing trees and other debris will prove a challenge for getting the power back on for the remaining 5%, but crews are working around the clock.
“The illuminating company has not seen a storm of this nature for about 30 years,” Hinton said.
The last storm of this magnitude to hit Ohio was in 1993.
According to the president, the company is in collaboration with more than 5,000 contractors to help with restoration.
“We have the resources we need to get this work done timely and, most importantly, safely,” Hinton said.
He also addressed some social media speculation that crews were sent to Florida— which is not the case.
News 5's Catherine Ross first reported this last night.
RELATED: FirstEnergy says it did not send crews south to help with Hurricane Debby
He also announced that the company teamed up with Giant Eagle to provide customers with free water and ice. Each customer is allowed one bag of ice and two gallons of water free of charge.
These are the locations:
RELATED: Here's where you can get water, ice and charge your phones
Customers flocked to the grocery stores Friday to receive their allotment. Several stores in Mentor and Willoughby told News 5 they were out of their first shipment of ice within an hour of opening.
Some living without power for almost four days said it's becoming tiresome, but they appreciate the work happening in their neighborhoods.
“It might not come back until Saturday, Sunday," said Terry Polsak. “It’s tough. You feel like you’re back in the stone age. But when you ride around and see people’s yards and houses… because I went through that last year.”
Polsak shared photos from August 2023 when storms toppled a large tree into her Lakeline home. She said she had just finished the final repairs Tuesday, hours before the more recent storms hit.
She said the experience has given her a new perspective during the prolonged power outage.
“I’m going to get a generator eventually,” she said.
Others were using the electricity and amenities elsewhere.
“This is our first hot meal in, like, four days,” said Mary Robertson, pointing to a burger she was sharing with her husband Reed at Tricky Tortoise Brewing Co. in Willoughby.
The brewery is filling coolers with free ice, offering food discounts and allowing anyone to charge devices or use the internet.
“It is frustrating but you can’t be frustrated right now. We’ve got to stay together. Anything we can do to try to stay level-headed in it and help as many people as we can…” said general manager Donny McCraith. “We’re compelled to help. If we can help, we will help.”
Hinton also asked for the public's patience with restorations as even the company's employees are affected by the same outages.
Those crews are pulling 16-hour days.
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