FirstEnergy Corp.'s electric companies on Sunday had restored service to more than 506,000 of the approximately 637,000 customers who lost power after severe wind and thunderstorms hit the company's entire service territory Saturday. Crews were working around the clock to assess damage and restore service to approximately 131,000 customers who remain without power in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey.
Beginning overnight Friday in western Ohio and moving eastward throughout the day Saturday, powerful winds gusting to more than 60 mph, along with strong thunderstorms and frequent lighting strikes, brought down trees and limbs that caused widespread damage to FirstEnergy's utility poles and equipment. In many areas of Ohio and Pennsylvania, the damage is even more significant than that experienced from a similar windstorm last weekend.
"We recognize the inconvenience to our customers when power outages occur – and especially the challenges faced by customers who were impacted two weekends in a row by storms. Approximately 3,000 employees from our 10 electric companies and corporate offices, along with more than 1,500 contractors and support personnel from outside FirstEnergy, will continue around-the-clock work until service is restored to every customer," said Samuel L. Belcher, senior vice president of FirstEnergy Utilities. "These crews are responding to thousands of instances of downed wires, broken poles and crossarms and damaged transformers across FirstEnergy's entire service territory. Though repair work can be time consuming, restoring power as efficiently and safely as possible is our top priority."
Based on outages and damage assessment, restoration efforts were expected to take multiple days in many areas.
