40,000 Ohioans Without Power
Sep 25 - Dayton Daily News
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.
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