Late-afternoon thunderstorms struck the Athens area Monday, causing massive electrical outages that resulted in a daylong loss of power for many homes.
Athens and its surrounding areas are supplied with electricity by AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power. The AEP Ohio service area comprises the cities of Athens, McConnelsville, Crooksville, Wellston, Lancaster, Pomeroy and Pt. Pleasant, W.Va. As of 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, about 6,000 customers in the service area were lacking electricity.
AEP Ohio reported Tuesday that more than 96,000 of their customers were affected, and that more than 80 percent of their customers' power had been restored -though nearly 20,000 people still had no power. AEP Ohio also reported that approximately 7,086 Athens customers were without power overnight, and 1,936 customers still had no electricity Tuesday.
Ohio University students experienced the effects of the outage overnight and into Tuesday morning. Some tenants of North Lancaster Street camped outside in tents in order to beat the heat of their non-powered homes, while other students on West State Street illuminated their homes with large amounts of candles.
Nick Lyden, an OU sophomore who lives on 74 E. State St., Apt. 12, took precautions in order to adapt to the lack of electricity.
I was really concerned about the food in my fridge
so I went to a gas station pretty quickly when I realized that it wasn't going to be coming on anytime soon and picked up a few bags of ice so that nothing went to waste Lyden said.
Other students such as Tanessa Pugh, an OU senior and tenant of North Lancaster Street, commented on the difficulty of driving around Athens.
It really seemed like everyone was not on the same page when it came to driving around town without the help of the stoplights Pugh said. Some cars would stop while others would just speed by
not even realizing that they are affecting the travel of other people.
Pugh also expressed concerns about the return of her electricity -the predicted forecast for restored power was yesterday.
All of the weather forecasters were saying that it was going to be a pretty hot day on Wednesday and that the temperature could even get close to 100 degrees again because of the humidity
so I became real concerned about whether I was going to be able to use my air conditioner
Pugh said.
Students eventually had to find ways to pass the time while they waited for their power to be restored. Pugh and Lyden both said that many of their friends -including themselves -were going to use the Athens Community Center Pool while waiting. Many businesses within their proximity also were affected by the power failure.
Businesses lining Carpenter and Court streets, such as Courtside Pizza and Family Dollar, hung signs near their entrances announcing they would be closed because of the power outage.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, about 218 Athens residents still did not have power, along with 532 people in the surrounding Athens area.
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Anthony Chambers
