Repairing power lines damaged by Wednesday night’s storms could take more than a day, according to Duke Energy spokeswoman Sally Thelen.
“We’ve got over 40 poles that are broken on the system overall, so we have widespread damage,” she said Thursday afternoon.
Those broken poles knocked out power to more than 60,000 customers overnight, and outages lingered into the evening for customers in Mount Healthy, Madeira and Golf Manor.
Duke Energy knew the storms would be a problem as soon as they started brewing, Thelen said.
The company plans to strengthen its system for the future by replacing the 40 broken wood poles with steel ones that stand up better to harsh weather. However, they also take a significant amount of time to install.
“Those are the kinds of repairs, unfortunately, that take a lot of hours, a lot of manpower,” Thelen said. “Once we get the pole out and get a new one in, we’ll have to rehang some lines. We’re talking multiple hours, in some cases six hours or so, per one of these poles.”
Use the map below to find your power status and for restoration times.
