Roughly 30,000 Duke Energy customers lost power across the Tri-State Sunday evening as heavy winds moved through the area. Duke Energy Spokesperson Sally Thelen told WCPO crews spent much of the day working to restore power as strong winds downed trees and utility poles Sunday.
"We are actively out doing damage assessment this afternoon, so we are still getting, with some of the wind, some new outages coming in," Thelen told WCPO, adding that most of the outages have been seen in Ohio.
Roughly 2,700 people lost power in Goshen, Ohio before 11:30. Outages were also reported in Westwood, Winton Woods, Bethel, Fayetteville and Loveland in Ohio, with Fort Mitchell, Crestview Hills and Union seeing outages in Kentucky.
Duke reported roughly 1,500 customers lost power in Aurora, Indiana at 10:30 a.m., and another 1,400 lost power in Osgood. Power in both areas has mostly been restored.
About 1,200 customers in Fairfield, Ohio also lost power Sunday morning followed by an outage for 1,390 customers in Hebron, Kentucky that was mostly restored as of 1:45 p.m.
This is the kind of damage our @DukeEnergy crews are seeing this afternoon. This is at River Rd and Grih Ln. in @fairfieldoh pic.twitter.com/9SOCFvfOpz
— Sally Thelen (@DE_SallyT) November 15, 2020
Thelen said many crews were active as early as 7 a.m. in preparation for the forecasted strong winds. As wind continued into the early evening, Thelen said crews will keep working in challenging conditions.
"These conditions are certainly challenging for our crews, getting out there and trying to get the bucket trucks up and the buckets in the air when the winds aren't real high," she said.
Thelen also cautioned against people trying to move downed power lines or wires themselves, as the lines could still be energized. Instead, call 911 or Duke Energy to report a downed power line.
"If you do come across a downed line, whether you're driving or even just trying to get out of your driveway, don't think that you can safely remove it with anything because it could be dangerous and even deadly," Thelen said.
Many outages like this one will not be quick fixes. This is off of Bypass 4 and Princeton Rd in Butler County. We truly appreciate your patience as we work on restoring power outages and repairs to our system. pic.twitter.com/OV4c0lRsrq
— Sally Thelen (@DE_SallyT) November 15, 2020
Thunderstorm threats have moved out of the Tri-State, but the National Weather Service issued a Wind Advisory across the Tri-State until 7 p.m., forecasting winds up to 50 mph capable of knocking down power lines and trees.
[1:15 PM] The storms have moved out & the severe thunderstorm threat has ended for our local area. However, strong to severe //non-storm-related// winds will continue for the next 4 hours or so. The sunny skies do NOT mean it is safe to venture outdoors. Stay inside if possible.
— NWS Wilmington OH (@NWSILN) November 15, 2020
As the wind advisory expired, roughly 5,000 Duke Energy customers throughout the region remained without power. By 10:00 p.m., many of those had been restored, but around 1,500 remained in the dark.
Find more outages and restoration times in the viewer below:
