Cincinnati Power

[BadThad]

I've been without power since Sun Sept 14 at 1:30PM.....arrrrrrgggg ....just came back on 10 minutes ago. In case any of you been wondering where I've been.

[CatFish]

that sucks. glad you are back with us. winter is on its way. sure glad we dont have winter.

[Aufan 1983]

Dang BT... I was wondering where you were as we fell yesterday.

Best of luck!!!

[BadThad]

I just talked to my brother in TN and was surprized to learn the rest of the world new nothing about what happened!

I thought for sure this was a national news story. When a major US city like Cincinnati loses 90% of it's power customers....you'd think that would be huge news! Close to 1 million people were without power here!

Since the news apparently SUCKS, now you can hear the real version from someone right in the middle of it all....

We got nailed by hurricane Ike. Yea...you should definately be saying WTF at this one. It was a freak condition where 3 weather events clashed and allowed Ike to "reform" to Cat 1. We had gusts to 78 mph and sustained winds at 51 mph. It was bizzare, because the sun was out with clear skies! It was an invisible hurricane.

Being a typical mid-west city, we haven't seen anything like this this in 100 years, so we were unprepared. It just destoryed the entire greater Cincinnati area. The quote I heard was over 3000 square miles. They also said a tornado wouldn't have done as much damage becasue it was so wide-spread. Fortunately, it seems not many are displaced which is perhaps why the national news hasn't gone crazy over it. Most homes just have roof shingles and siding ripped off, but the structures are intact (unless a tree fell on it). The governor declaired the area a disaster yesterday, seems the national news never picked that up either.

It was just errie driving around....imagine every traffic light in a major city being OFF. No lights, no hum of the city, almost dead silence and pitch black at night. About every 100 feet a huge tree was down. I would guesstimate about 30% of the trees in the area are now gone. Most roads had to be closed due to trees and downed power lines. (Amazingly, I've not yet heard of any fools getting electrocuted by a downed line.)

Gasoline was a huge problem the past few days. Filling stations had no power to pump gas. At one point, according to the radio, only 3 stations were known to be pumping gas and one of them only had premium left. It was improving today as power started being restored. There was one report of $5.99 gas in near-by Indiana today. The day after this hit I got up early and headed to work to see if they had power....the streets were empty and everything dark. No power there, but a nearby Sam's club had a huge generator going and was selling gas for $3.99, thank God, I was able to fill up. It was the first time in my life I felt lucky to buy gas.

My advice to everyone reading this....keep a stash of cash in your house. Banks, ATM's, credit card processing and everying was down, it was cash only most places I found open to nab supplies. Luckily, I had a few hundred stashed for emergencies, or I would have been screwed.

Make sure you have some candles too! So happens my wife's kind of into them so we had tons. They actually warmed the house let us walk around without flashlights. Candles also calm people and create a relaxing atmosphere at time of crisis.

I couldn't find any place to get a generator....of course. So I happened to have a car DC/AC convertor. It was a God send, we were able to run some minimal appliances using an extention cord. Everyone should have one of these, they are cheap and you'll hug them after something like this. We were able to watch DVD movies instead of just sitting in the dark all night like most people....hehehehehehehe. Generators were few and far between.

OK, enough of my rambling....lol


Fox has a crappy story here:

FOXNews.com - Ike Remnants Blamed for Midwest Deaths, Blackouts - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Looks like AP picked it up too, but no national TV coverage:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - At least three people were killed by toppled trees and more than a million homes and businesses lost power as the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Ohio on Sunday.

A falling tree killed two motorcyclists in Hueston Woods State Park in southwest Ohio, said Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokesman Jason Fallon. A woman was killed in the Cincinnati suburb of Mt. Healthy when a tree fell through the roof of her home. Her name has not been released, said Hamilton County Coroner O'dell Owens.

Winds gusting up to 78 mph felled trees, ripped roofs from buildings and blocked roadways across the state, with southwest and central Ohio bearing the brunt of the storm's force.

Gusts clocked in at 78 mph in Wilmington and Lebanon and 75 mph in Columbus, according to the National Weather Service.

"What we experienced was a hurricane-force wind gust," said meteorologist Myron Padgett at the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

More than 852,000 Duke Energy customers lost power in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky in the biggest outage in the company's history, said Duke Energy spokeswoman Kathy Meinke. Just before dawn on Monday, about 582,000 were still out.

"It's going to be quite extensive," Meinke said. "Over 90 percent of our customers are without service."

Close to 344,000 American Electric Power customers had no electricity Monday morning in central Ohio, including nearly half of Franklin County, according to the company's Web site.

"This is an unprecedented event for this time of year," AEP spokesman Jeff Rennie said. "We've never seen anything like this in early fall."

Both companies said it could take more than a week to restore power to some hard-hit areas. AEP is recalling crews that had been dispatched to southern states hit by the hurricane. About 310,000 Ohio Edison customers were in the dark in northeast Ohio, said spokeswoman Robin Patton.

South Central Power Co. reported on its Web site Monday morning that more than 28,000 customers were out in central, southern and eastern Ohio. The winds tore off part of the roof at Blacklick Elementary School in Gahanna, a Columbus suburb, Gahanna Superintendent Gregg Morris said.

Airport officials evacuated the control tower and canceled about 40 flights at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport before resuming air traffic Sunday evening, said airport spokesman Ted Bushelman. He said winds gusted up to 74 mph, ripping off part of the roof from a Delta Airlines hangar and damaging another airport building.

In Middletown, gusts knocked down a tree, which landed on a nearby house and left a truck dangling in the air.

"The tree is leaning on our neighbor's house, and then the root lifted up the back end of my husband's truck. It's about 8 feet in the air," resident Barbara Ray told The Middletown Journal. "We've been out here for 17 years and we've never had winds like this."

The winds sparked at least eight fires in Warren County, including one at a power substation in Hamilton Township that was later extinguished, said Frank Young, the county's director of emergency services. About half of the county's residents were without power. A man was injured by a falling tree in Springboro but his condition was not known, Young said.

"We've got thousands and thousands of trees down, a lot of damage to homes, businesses, you name it," Young said. "We want Ike to go away."

At the Miami Machine Corp. about 30 miles north of Cincinnati, the roof collapsed and landed on a neighboring building, police dispatchers said.

Fallen trees and other debris blocked roads and damaged cars throughout the region. Police also responded to downed power lines and street lights that have stopped working. In Cincinnati, Findlay Market - the state's oldest public marketplace - and several adjacent buildings caught on fire.

Downed trees and branches covered the roads in Columbus' downtown German Village neighborhood on Sunday night. Residents who had lost electricity gathered in the streets to assess the damage. Others congregated at local restaurants and bars like High Beck Tavern, where the bartender, Wayne Lewis, said business was three times busier than a typical Sunday.

Jeff Reznor, 63, made his way over to High Beck after his four-unit apartment building lost power and shingles were blown off the roof.

"We've had some pretty good soaking rain from storms, but not wind damage," said Reznor, who has lived in Columbus since 1965.

The winds died down Sunday evening and had returned to normal by Monday morning. No rain was forecast for the region. The storm damage prompted public schools in Cincinnati and Columbus to cancel classes on Monday.

Hurricane Ike came ashore from the Gulf of Mexico and hit Texas early Saturday morning, then moved northward on Sunday.

[BadThad]

Originally Posted by CATFISH

that sucks. glad you are back with us. winter is on its way. sure glad we dont have winter.

You got worse...hurricanes! LOL

Follow my advice above and quadruple it my friend. My Dad was without power for 8 weeks there. That would make the 3 days I was powerless seem like a cakewalk.

[sg1efc]

Glad you're Ok BadThad. Bad storms are precisely the reason I do not want any trees near a house I live in - too dangerous as far as I am concerned.

It is very surprising that the news reports I have watched had nothing about your ordeal there. Once I get my own place, I'd like to get an emergency generator installed that will run off of natural gas. Very rare that we have any power outages where I live, but it would be very handy to have when we do.

[3DCyclone]

Wow, all I can say is Wow BT! Glad you and yours are safe and power restored.

My parents property in central Iowa was hit with 80 mph straight winds a month or so back. 40+ year old trees knocked over flat and others severly damaged. I can only imagine the widespread damage in your area.

One the brighter side, there will be plenty of firewood if it happens again this winter!

[007]

On the bright side, you didn't have to watch the rest of the Bengals game. Ba-dum-bum-crash.

[BadThad]

Originally Posted by 007

On the bright side, you didn't have to watch the rest of the Bengals game. Ba-dum-bum-crash.

Indeed! LMAO!