EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was written in response to a reader-submitted question through Open Source, a platform where readers can ask Ashland Source’s newsroom to investigate a question.
ASHLAND — As of Wednesday, over 3,000 people in Ashland County are still without power, according to local electric companies, leaving many wondering when their lights will come back on.
For Ohio Edison customers, there is potentially good news.
“With help from more than 160 line workers and support personnel from our sister utilities assisting with restoration efforts in the hardest-hit areas, we expect to have all impacted customers back up and running by tomorrow evening,” Ohio Edison tweeted Wednesday.
Firelands Electric has not publicized an estimated restoration time, but said in a statement they had deployed electric crews and expected to make “significant progress” on Wednesday.
“As of 3 p.m. today, the cooperative is currently working on 33 separate outages resulting in less than 1,000 member-consumers remaining without power,” Firelands Electric said in a Wednesday Facebook post.
Residents of Loudonville who get electricity from The Energy Cooperative can expect power to return around noon on Friday, according to their website. In a Wednesday Facebook post, The Energy Cooperative described Loudonville as being one of the “most difficult” areas and would likely be restored last.
Area electric companies cited fallen trees and limbs — which have to be cleared away by logging companies — and the sheer number of outages and downed lines as the reasons for the power’s slow restoration.
“Many areas experienced significant tree damage. Remember: Before our utility crews can safely access the site of the outage and begin making the repairs, a forestry crew must come in and remove the tree debris,” Ohio Edison said in a Wednesday tweet.
