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Tuesday, September 23, 2008
COLUMBUS — For all but about 40,000 electricity users in Ohio, one of the largest outages in state history is history.
Unfortunately, many of those still without power live in the Miami Valley.
The Sept. 14 windstorm — a combination of Hurricane Ike and an unnamed cold front — left 1.92 million Ohioans out of power.
Duke Energy, American Electric Power and FirstEnergy were all hard hit. By Monday afternoon, however, just 12,000 of their customers were waiting to get their power restored. Meanwhile, DP&L said 28,000 of its customers were still without electricity.
Ohio Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Tamara McBride said the state will have a total damage cost by the end of the week, once the 88 county EMAs report their numbers.
The state requested $7 million in federal disaster assistance for local governments to be reimbursed for expenses such as overtime and fuel. Ohio was not eligible under federal rules to apply for individual cash assistance, said Keith Dailey, press secretary for Gov. Ted Strickland.
Once the damage figures are tallied, the state plans to apply for more federal funds to defray the cost of debris removal, he said.
The state of emergency Strickland declared last week remains in effect.
Last week, the governor met with reporters at his blackened residence in Bexley and urged Ohioans to be patient and careful, and to check on their neighbors.
