AEP: Outages for some to last through weekend - Business First of Columbus:

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The Columbus-based utility said Thursda y that winds clocking in at up to 70 miles per hour in the regionm late Wednesday knocked out power to nearly 146,000 of its 1.5 million Ohio That total had declined to about or 5.5 percent of AEP’s Ohio customers, as of 2:15 p.m. Nearly three in 10 customers in the statw still without power were in Franklin which hadnearly 23,000 outagews Thursday afternoon. American Electric (NYSE:AEP) said gustx are expected to continue Thursday and mighthampert power-restoration efforts, which will last into the weekends for some customers.
The widespreade nature of the windstorm also has utilities that AEP typicall pulls in for extra helpscramblinvg themselves, Karl Boyd, AEP Ohio’s vice presideny for distribution operations, said in a conference call Thursdaty afternoon. That’s causing the company to go as faras Canada, for additional help, Boyd said. The utilityh has an additional 200 workers helpingy its Ohio crew ofabout 1,35 employees, while it’s requesting 625 more line and tree some of whom won’t arrive until AEP sliced the total of customers left in the dark nearlu in half in just 24 hours, but customers shouldn’tf expect that pace to Boyd said.
“The pace will slow as we get into moredifficult situations, having to cut down replace poll and string wire,” he said. “We’ve done a good deal of assessmenyt and we have more assessors in the The extent of the damage causedby Wednesday’s winds is only several thousand customers shy of the snow and ice stormn a mere two weeks ago. That stornm left thousands of AEP customers in the dark for about a week, mainly in areas soutuh and southeast of metro Columbus. The damag this week pales in compariso to the September 2008 windstorm that knockeds out power to nearly 2 milliom households throughoutthe state, including more than 500,00 AEP customers.
To report an click or call 1-800-277-2177. AEP expects to post estimated restoration timezs for areas around the state on itsThursday evening.