August 9, 2024

Our employees and crews have restored power to more than 215,000 Ohio Edison and The Illuminating Company customers following a historic weather event Tuesday. The storm included two tornados with winds up to 110 mph in Cuyahoga County, one of which traveled a path 17 miles long and 350 yards wide through the heavily populated area from Brookpark to Bedford.

This was the most impactful storm to hit CEI’s service territory since July 1993, when a powerful line of thunderstorms caused power outages to approximately 300,000 of our customers.

More than 3,050 line workers – from FirstEnergy, contractor companies and mutual assistance organizations – are working around the clock in 16-hour shifts to make repairs as quickly and safely as possible. They are being assisted by more than 1,000 damage assessors, hazard responders, forestry and other support personnel from inside and outside the company, Hundreds of additional crews are expected to arrive throughout the day.

We have begun setting up staging sites across the greater Cleveland area to handle the influx of outside workers and help make the restoration process more efficient. These sites operate like mini cities in the hardest-hit areas, offering workers a place stock up on materials and supplies as they work to restore power to our customers.

There are currently thousands of damage locations recorded across northeast Ohio, with more broken poles and equipment issues being reported in real time as field workers continue to assess the outage locations and make repairs.

Current outage updates as of 10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 8, include:

• The Illuminating Company: Approximately 322,600 customers lost power from the storm, and 248,300 remain without power. Power will be restored to the majority of customers by 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 14.
• Ohio Edison: Approximately 106,900 customers lost power from the storm, and 9,100 remain without power. While many remaining customers should be back up today, Aug. 8, and tomorrow, Aug. 9, those in the hardest-hit areas of Trumbull County could be without service until Saturday, Aug. 10.

Our initial global estimated time of restoration (ETR) represents an estimate of when service will be restored to the majority of customers following major outage events. Work to restore power continues around the clock, and many customers will have service restored sooner, based on the level of damage in their area.

As additional information about necessary repairs is understood, more detailed ETRs are provided.

Customers can view their current individual ETR for their particular outage by logging into their account at firstenergycorp.com, texting STAT to 544487, or viewing the outage map at firstenergycorp.com/outages.

This aerial photo reveals extensive storm damage involving several downed power lines located along 130th Street in Parma, Ohio.