Politics & Government

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: First Energy Provides Solon Outage Data

A representative of First Energy gave Solon City Council a report of how Solon's power grid handled Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy left residents across Northeast Ohio without power for days, including some in Solon.

A representative of First Energy gave Solon City Council a report of how Solon's power grid handled Hurricane Sandy.

Terry Killeen, an external affairs manager for the utility, said that the Illuminating Company was dealing with 344,000 customers without power and 7,000 downed wires across its service area.

Find out what's happening in Solonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Solon did not escape unscathed," he added.

He said that 1,500 customers in Solon were without power during the height of the storm and that 90 percent of Solon customers had their power restured by 2 p.m. on Oct. 30.

Find out what's happening in Solonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Still, there were 165 customers in Solon that remained without power until Friday, Nov. 2, Killeen said.

The reason is the way that utility companies prioritize restoration efforts in ways to restore power to the largest number of customers.

"If you are part of a smaller outage, you have to make preparations because you might out for the long haul during a storm like [Sandy]," Killeen said.

Killeen also said that, because of the way the grid works and the different places where the connection can be lost, the power company doesn't always know where power is still out.

That's why its important for customers to report a power outage by calling 1-888-LIGHTS (1-888-544-4877).


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Solon