HURRICANE SEASON 2008

Frustrated in Ohio: 5 days without power for some

By LISA CORNWELL,
Associated Press Writer
Sat Sep 20, 2008

CINCINNATI - Facing a fifth day without power, the residents of a senior housing community in western Ohio took to the street with foam signs to protest the failure of Dayton Power and Light Co. to restore electricity.

"You would think that based on our abilities, our capabilities, residents here should draw some priority," resident Bob Williams, 80, told the Dayton Daily News.

Power outages are more than an inconvenience at the Fairwood Village retirement community where some residents depend on oxygen devices, 911 service and working elevators.

Friday's protest seemed to get a reaction. Within three hours of residents heading to the curb with their placards, crews were working to restore power.

The protest was one of many indications that frustration continues to grow as utility crews work to restore electricity to the remaining 330,000 homes and businesses left in the dark since the remains of Hurricane Ike blew through Ohio on Sunday.

A man in a Cincinnati suburb was arrested Thursday, accused of threatening a utility worker with a gun that he said shoots plastic BBs. The man later said he was joking.

Some customers had become so impatient by Wednesday that they drove to a Duke Energy dispatch center east of Cincinnati. Clermont County Sheriff A.J. Rodenberg said Duke asked his office to provide security after a few customers appeared intimidating and threatening to workers trying to get their trucks out.

Approximately 2.6 million homes and businesses were without power at the peak of the outage in Ohio.

Winds reaching 78 mph swept through on Sunday, and at least seven of the 56 deaths blamed on Ike were in Ohio. Trees were uprooted, falling on homes, blocking roads and bringing down power lines and poles. Long lines formed at the gas stations, groceries and hardware stores that didn't lose power. Schools and businesses were forced to close for days.

By Friday, many schools had reopened, piles of tree limbs and other debris were being picked up and traffic lights and gas stations were operating again.

About 164,000 homes and businesses in Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania remained without power.

Utility companies say it is too soon to assess the cost of repairs and how it may affect customers. They urged patience as they move from fixing larger circuits to smaller ones, which often slows the rate of repairs.

"Now we're into situations where maybe if there are only a few homes we have to restore, we may have to set new poles, string new wire or place new transformers," said FirstEnergy Corp. spokesman Mark Durbin. "Those are labor intensive jobs. In some rural locations, trees came crashing down on our equipment."

FirstEnergy reported Friday that it had reduced outages to about 22,000 customers, with about 10,000 in the Cleveland area.

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Associated Press reporters M.R. Kropko in Cleveland and

James Hannah in Dayton contributed to this report.