Worst power outage in 30 years left 429,000 in the dark (2024)

On the afternoon of Aug. 6, University Heights resident Shawn Fink was on his way home after picking up his 9-year-old son, Eddie, from his in-laws’ house in Mayfield Heights. The pair arrived home just as the weather alert rang through his phone.

Fink, a congregant of Green Road Synagogue and Young Israel of Greater Cleveland, both in Beachwood, and his son went to the basem*nt of their home to wait out the storm, he told the Cleveland Jewish News. During the storm, the power to the home continuously flickered on and off, with the family losing power completely around 6 p.m.

“For the most part, (the lights) were on and then after a while, they just stayed on,” Fink said. “All of the sudden, literally an hour after the storm had passed at about 6 o’clock, they went out and they stayed out for the next four days and 19 hours.”

In the aftermath of the storm, community organizations banded together to help those in need as power outages continued to impact the area following winds that reached 90 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Congregation Mishkan Or at 26000 Shaker Blvd. in Beachwood opened its doors to its congregants without power from the storm, Laura Munson, communications director, told the CJN. The Lee and Dolores Hartzmark Library and the congregation’s cafe were open, offering a place to access Wi-Fi or to charge electronic devices.

“We did post on our Facebook page ... inviting our members who might need power to recharge, they could come to the temple and our library was open for them, our cafe, and they could charge their devices or work from here if they needed to,” Munson said.

While she said she doesn’t know if anyone visited the temple, 52 people did like and share the Aug. 7 Facebook post.

Two refrigerated food trucks were located in the back parking lot of Hebrew Academy of Cleveland’s Yavne High School for Girls at 2475 S. Green Road in Beachwood. The trucks, which have freezer and cooler sections, were open to members of the community to store their perishable food items while power slowly returned to residents. Food had to be packaged in cardboard boxes, sealed with tape and labeled with the resident’s last name and phone number.

The trucks were placed in the parking lot by Cleveland Agudah, Hatzalah and Chaverim of Cleveland in partnership with Hillcrest Foods, Fink said in an Aug. 12 Facebook post.

Seventeen branches of the Cuyahoga County Public Library were also open to those in need of air conditioning, electricity or reliable Wi-Fi, Kate McCreary, chief communications and external relations officer for the library, told the CJN in an email. The branches open were Beachwood, Bedford, Berea, Brecksville, Fairview Park, Garfield Heights, Gates Mills, Mayfield, Middleburg Heights, North Royalton, Olmsted Falls, Orange, Parma-Snow, Solon, South Euclid-Lyndhurst, Strongsville and Warrensville Heights.

Due to the outages and expected large number of customers, the library also opened part of its administrative building at 2111 Snow Road in Parma to those in need.

The storm, which included two tornadoes in Cuyahoga County and is considered “the most impactful storm to hit The Illuminating Co. service territory since July 1993,” led to power outages in the area resulting in about 429,500 customers of The Illuminating Co. and Ohio Edison, subsidiaries of FirstEnergy Corp., losing power, according to a news release from the company. The release said over 3,050 line workers from the company and other contractor organizations and mutual assistance organizations, and 1,000 damage assessors and other hazard responders, worked to “make repairs as quickly and safely as possible.”

As of Aug. 14, power was restored to almost all households.

FirstEnergy Corp. repaired or replaced 1,795 pole cross arms, 400 poles, 195 transformers and 189,235 feet of cables and wires, a news release said.

While the company was working to restore power, community organizations and emergency responders were offering assistance to those in need.

On Aug. 10, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency for Cuyahoga, Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Portage, Summit and Trumbull counties.

“This declaration of a state of emergency will give the state the ability to give these communities expedited assistance. At the moment, we have no outstanding requests for services the state can provide to our local communities to help in the aftermath of these storms,” DeWine said in a news release. “However, we are in this for the duration and will continue to help local communities in Northeast Ohio as they recover from the damage left by the storm, should we receive any new request for services the state is able to provide.”

DeWine also asked Ohio Emergency Management Director Sima Merick to request a damage assessment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the release stated.

The Shaker Heights Fire Department received 26 calls following the storm on Aug. 6, Fire Chief Patrick Sweeney told the CJN. The calls primarily focused on fallen power lines and trees. The biggest impact on the city was the loss of power, leaving Sweeney worried about the effect it would have on people’s daily lives, he said.

“We worry about individuals who need to be in cooler environments,” Sweeney said. “We worry about individuals that might have medical equipment, such as breathing machines or oxygen machines. That loss of power is impactful to them. The big, big thing is the power outage and how it impacts people’s daily lives.”

Sweeney said about 15,000 residents were still without power on Aug. 8, but the department was trying to remain connected to the needs of the community.

Several neighborhoods in Solon were “decimated” with tree damage following the storm, said Mayor Eddy Kraus. He said some roads were blocked for over a day, with the service department working extra hours to ensure safe removal of trees. Kraus told the CJN he was not aware of any significant damage to homes.

While many residents were without power immediately following the storm, Kraus said on Aug. 8 that almost all residents had their power restored, a substantial improvement.

Kraus said Solon’s senior department checked in with senior citizens throughout the community over the days following the storm, either by driving to their homes or calling their phone numbers. Additionally, he said the Solon Community Center was made available for residents if they needed somewhere to stay.

Kraus said residents should consider purchasing generators to provide them with power during future outages.

Mayfield Heights Chief of Fire Bruce Elliott said the storm was one of the worst he’s seen in his 31 years with the fire department in terms of power outages. The lack of power can be especially concerning for individuals in senior centers or on oxygen, Elliott told the CJN.

Elliott said while the storm did not significantly impact Mayfield Heights as much as neighboring cities, the Mayfield Heights Fire Department still responded to 33 calls on Aug. 6, which was 20 calls above usual. He said since Aug. 6, the fire department has received about 50 more calls than it usually handles, most of which were storm related.

While residents were without power, Elliott said the city opened the community center and the aquatic center as “comfort stations,” where people could access the internet, charge devices and cool off. He said as of Aug. 8, there were no shelter requests from residents.

Mayfield Village experienced utility disruption and street closures from trees falling, said Fire Chief Eugene Carcioppolo.

Mayfield Village Mayor Brenda Bodnar told the CJN most of the roads were cleared and no injuries were reported. The city experienced widespread power loss as of Aug. 9.

First responders and the Mayfield Village Service Department were out assisting residents and providing emergency alerts since Aug. 6. Additionally, the Mayfield Village Civic Center and Community Room were open to residents who needed access to charging ports and air conditioning, Bodnar said. The public pool also had a charging station for cellphones.

The city of Pepper Pike was “not hit that hard,” Fire Chief John Frazier told the CJN. The fire department didn’t receive many calls, but did answer calls about an alarm and a pole on fire, he said.

“I think we were very lucky and (there) was very low impact on Pepper Pike,” Frazier said.

In Orange, only two calls were made to the fire department, both from the West Woodcrest Drive neighborhood about small house fires ignited by fallen power lines, Fire Chief Larry Genova told the CJN.

The same neighborhood had one outage, which was resolved by 3 p.m. Aug. 7, he said. However, the department was ready to help those in need if it became necessary.

“We were ready, but there was nobody was going to be without power for a prolonged period of time,” Genova said. “Nobody was requiring any shelter or needed out of the heat. We were ready to serve, but fortunately we were not needed.”

The Cleveland Heights Department of Public Works was clearing streets and removing brush from tree lawns, according to a news release from the city. All major street blockages were cleared, besides one at the intersection of North Woodland Road and Fairmount Boulevard.

In Beachwood, the community center extended its hours and provided access to shower facilities at the Beachwood Family Aquatic Center, according to a news release.

The community center was open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. weekends. Shower facilities were open from 6:15 a.m. to noon weekdays and 9 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. weekends.

Beachwood City Council president Alec Isaacson called for First Energy Corp. to assist with a blown fuse at the intersection of Lyndway Road and East Baintree Road, which left over 70 homes without power after the storm, in a Aug. 8 Facebook post.

“All it takes is one crew with some fuses, a hot stick and an hour,” the post read. “This is low-hanging fruit which you’re ignoring.”

He continued the post by asking for the company to restore power in the rest of the over 700 Beachwood residents without power at the time.

According to the FirstEnergy outage map, power was restored to the area on Aug. 10.

The city of University Heights responded to 58 calls surrounding damage from the storm, including calls about downed wires, fallen trees and fires, according to an Aug. 7 Facebook post from the city.

The city also collected spoiled food on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10 at Walter Stinson Community Park at 2313 Fenwick Road, according to an Aug. 8 Facebook post. The drop-off location was the parking lot at the Saybrook Road side of Walter Stinson Community Park with one employee assisting at the drop off.

The city of Cleveland was collecting data to declare a state of emergency from Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronyane, an Aug. 8 Facebook post said. To qualify for county assistance through a state of emergency, damages must exceed $5.9 million with limits as to what can be included in the count.

Chesterland Memorial Park at 11521 Chillicothe Road in Chester Township and Glenville Cemetery at 13009 Shaw Ave. in Cleveland also felt the impact of the storm, according to a news release from B’nai Jeshurun Congregation. Chesterland Memorial Park, where two trees fell away from graves and branches were blown through the cemetery, remained open for visits while a landscaper cleaned the area.

However, Glenville Cemetery’s front driveway was blocked and some headstones were damaged as a result of four trees falling during the storm, the release said. The congregation was working to remove the blockage in the road.

Back at Fink’s home, power was restored on Aug. 11. Since then, he and his wife, have been working to assess what food needed to be restocked as they were “lucky” this was the only lasting effect from the storm last week, Fink said.

Braedon Olsen, the David & Judy Zwick Family Fund Intern at the Cleveland Jewish News, contributed to this report.