NEW LONDON — Powerful thunderstorms with damaging winds and hail swept through north central Ohio on Thursday night starting at around 8 p.m.
These strong storms caused widespread damage to trees and power lines, especially throughout portions of southern Huron County, northern Richland and Ashland County.
Firelands Electric reports that during height of the storm, the cooperative lost power to five substations and one metering point due to a loss of transmission power provided by both FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison and American Electric Power (AEP), which feed the cooperative’s substations and local distribution system.
Just after midnight, AEP transmission was restored, which energized Firelands’ Boughtonville substation and Greenwich metering point.
At that time, FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison advised Firelands that transmission power feeding its Fitchville, New London, and Steuben substations will likely remain without power until midday Friday, at the earliest, due to multiple broken 110′ transmission poles.
Firelands’ crews worked diligently throughout the night clearing trees and power line damage across its system. Crews were able to backfeed power from another transmission source to restore service to a majority of their member-consumers receiving power from the cooperative’s Steuben substation.
As of 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning, Firelands Electric Cooperative still has roughly 5,200 member-consumers without power. This includes two substations, Fitchville and New London, a portion of their Steuben substation that could not be backfed from another transmission source, and also includes a portion of their system in Mifflin Township, Richland County.
Firelands Electric is working to address roughly 30 broken poles and widespread damage to its system, especially in southern Huron County. The cooperative is receiving mutual aid this morning from Lorain-Medina Rural Electric Cooperative and North Central Electric Cooperative who will assist with the extensive amount of system damage.
Firelands will remain in close contact with FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison on any updates regarding the transmission line that feeds power to Firelands’ Fitchville, New London, and Steuben substations. Firelands’ line crews will continue working throughout the day to repair storm damage and get power restored.
Members who are aware of any extensive line damage on Firelands’ system, especially across roadways are encouraged to contact the cooperative’s dispatchers with any location information that may be helpful by calling 1-800-533-8658. Please be safe and use caution when traveling.
Firelands will share any information as it becomes available. Outage information can be accessed at https://epay.firelandsec.com/maps/public/OutageWebMap.
Firelands Electric Cooperative, a Touchstone Energy Cooperative, is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric utility serving more than 9,200 homes and businesses in rural areas of Ashland, Huron, Lorain, and Richland counties that ranks among the highest energy utilities in the country for customer satisfaction.
Visit the cooperative’s website, www.firelandsec.com, Facebook page and Twitter feed, to learn more about reliable and affordable power.
