COLUMBUS, Ohio – American Electric Power projected that nearly all of the thousands of people who lost power during Wednesday’s storms would have their lights back on late Friday night.
At 10:00 a.m. Friday, the utiility reported power had been restored in northeast Columbus, northwest Columbus, and Delaware and projected outages in southeast and southwest Columbus would be remedied by 6:00 p.m. and in Newark by 11:00p.m.
More than 2,400 line, assessment and tree trimming crews were working on restoration on Friday.
AEP officials say about 38 of the utility’s transmission circuits were knocked out by high winds, affecting 139,000 customers. Three-fourths of those has their power restored Friday morning.
The National Weather Service has confirmed at least three tornadoes touched down in Ohio, though none of them were in central Ohio.
A storm assessment team determined that it was a microburst, with 95 mph winds, that hit the warehouse on Equity Drive at approximately 4:00 p.m. According to a company press release, four workers at Teleperformance were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
A twister toppled a barn in Rowsburg, southwest of Akron, and another was registered in Mineral City in Tuscarawas County, where an entire fire station was destroyed. Other tornadoes were reported in Sandusky, Ashland, Seneca and Huron counties.