Columbus-area residents deal with huge power outage
Thousands of Columbus-area residents coped with a second day of power outages Wednesday even as the area continues to experience a heatwave with temperatures climbing into the upper 90s.
More than 230,000 American Electric Power customers were without power after intentional outages were conducted to protect the power grid, including outages affecting more than 169,000 in the Columbus area, according to the AEP outage map.
One of the hardest hit areas in the city is Morse Road near Easton Town Center with 3,330 customer outages. Other areas with large outages include:
■ 4,943 customer outages in the South Side between Groveport Road and Alum Creek Drive.
■ 2,513 customer outages on I-270 near Dublin-Granville Road on the North Side.
■ 2,007 customer outages in the University District
■ 2,198 customer outages near Main Street on the Near East Side
■ 2,857 customer outages on Fishinger Road on the West Side.
It followed a flurry of storms and high winds that blew through the area, along with scorching temperatures — making dealing with the outages even more painful for affected area residents.
Staying cool at the splashgrounds
Aaron Francis, 35, ran through the splashgrounds at Scioto Southland Community Center with his pitbull-boxer dog Bear.
“It’s refreshing, for sure,” said Francis, a South Side resident. “It’s a better alternative to a swimming pool.”
He lost power on Tuesday and still didn’t have power Wednesday morning, so he patiently waited for the splashground to open at 11 a.m.
“It seems like this heat isn’t going anywhere,” he said.
Varayla Limalima, 34, watched her four-year-old daughter Reagan happily dance, jump and squeal with excitement in the splashground.
“We wanted to come out and get some cool refreshing water to cool off,” said Limalima, of Obetz.
Their power came back at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning after going out for 14 hours, long enough for them to lose a lot of food from their refrigerator. Now they are in the process of determining if they want to use their home insurance to help cover the cost.
“Definitely stay hydrated, that’s the number one thing,” she said.
Hospitals unaffected by power outages
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State East Hospital have so far been unaffected by the power outages, said spokeswoman Marti Leitch. The medical center remains in close contact with AEP to monitor the ongoing situation, Leitch said.
OhioHealth’s Riverside Methodist Hospital and Grant Medical Center were both using emergency power Tuesday evening but had their electric fully restored by 6 p.m. Tuesday, said spokeswoman Katie Logan.
Hotels seeing increased business due to power outage
Some Columbus hotels have seen an influx of locals looking for rooms in the midst of a massive power outage.
The Residence Inn by Marriot in Easton reported they have no power and are not able to take reservations at this time. Other hotels in the Easton area are also experiencing a loss of power.
Yulio Beracierto, hotel manager at the Hilton Columbus Downtown location, said they have some reservations made as a response to the power outages, but nothing that is “out of the ordinary.”
Beracierto said the hotel is also offering a limited number of rooms at a special community rate to support those who have been affected by the outage.
‘Today has been hell’
No power means spoiled food for some.
Keleea Leake, 39, was in the process of making salmon and rice for dinner Tuesday afternoon when the power to her North Linden house went out. Leake and her two high school aged
children instead spent the evening alternating between the front porch and her car, using half a tank of gas in the process.
The food in their refrigerator and freezer has by now gone bad, leaving them with nothing to eat.
Just before noon Wednesday, Leake and her son and daughter sat at a picnic table under an umbrella outside All People’s Fresh Market on the South Side, waiting for the line into the Parsons Avenue market to thin before subjecting themselves to the sun.
“Today has been hell,” Leake said.
All People’s Fresh Market is run by the nonprofit Community Development for All People and provides free produce Tuesday through Saturday. The food is available to households making less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. All that’s needed to sign up is a driver’s license or some other form of identification.
Leake moved here from New Jersey last month and spent much of what money she had on the move. She can’t afford to replace the groceries that spoiled.
Leake said her 12-yearold son sometimes uses a breathing machine to alleviate chronic asthma, which of course requires power.
“They’re frustrated, so that makes me frustrated,” she added. “Me not being able to get them any food. I don’t have anything. I exhausted everything with this move.”
“I’m disgusted. I never had something like this happen.”
Residents in Linden affected by outages
In South Linden, Michell Wiley of McGuffey Road, said Wednesday morning that she was without power
from about 3 p.m. Tuesday to 8:45 a.m. Wednesday. She said she spent Tuesday night with her daughter who lives near Brice and Refugee roads on the Far East Side, where there was power. Wiley also took her 78-year-old mother, who lives on Jefferson Avenue in the Linden area, to the Hilton at Polaris.
“It was not good,” said Wiley of the power loss. She thinks it was unfair that her neighborhood with its less-expensive homes was targeted for a power shutdown. “They think less of us,” she said.
New outages continued during the day on Wednesday. In one part of North Linden between Karl and Maize roads south of Cooke Road, 2,796 customers lost power at 8:43 a.m.
Jasmine Ayres, a North Linden area commissioner, said she and a friend drove the Northland area about 10:30 p.m., along Morse and Karl roads and East Dublin-Granville Road, seeing nothing but darkness.
“Northland was devastating last night,” Ayres said. “So many senior living facilities.”
“How did the neighborhood with the most immigrants and refugees and Black folks have no power?” she said.
“We have to get serious to think about improving our infrastructure,” she said.
When will power be restored?
American Electric Power says electricity may not be restored until late Thursday evening in much of central Ohio.
Hard-hit areas can expect a multiday outage, and inclement weather may cause further damage and additional outages, according to a release.