Strong winds ripped a large limb off this tree in the 10600 block of Ottawa Road (state Route 65) between Columbus Grove and Cairo on Monday night.
David Trinko | The Lima News
LIMA — Winds up to 75 mph from a storm Monday night threw tree limbs to the ground and knocked power out throughout the region.
Losing electricity on a day with record-breaking just adding to the region’s discomfort. Temperatures hit 95 degrees in Lima on Tuesday, setting a new record high, according to AccuWeather. Temperatures won’t be much better Wednesday, with a predicted high of 96 degrees.
As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, 74 customers were without power in Allen County, according to AEP Ohio’s outage tracker, down from 2,107 at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
AEP Ohio estimated many of those outages will be resolved by 11 a.m. Wednesday, but it could extend to 4 p.m. Thursday in some harder-hit areas.
In Putnam County, 1,306 customers didn’t have electricity Wednesday morning, down 1,589 from Tuesday morning. Cooling stations opened up at Trinity United Methodist Church, 137 N. Pratt St., and St. Michael Catholic Church, 312 N. Broad St., Kalida, to help people whose power hadn’t returned yet. Trinity’s cooling station will open again from 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesday.
“I love the way people come together here when there’s a situation,” said Beatrice Velasquez, who has lived on Ottawa’s Taft Street for 51 years and stopped in at Trinity United Methodist Church’s cooling station Tuesday. “We definitely take care of each other here.”
Trinity United Methodist Church didn’t have power itself, but it’s blessed with a large enough generator to cool the food at a food pantry there and open its doors to the community. Most of Ottawa’s outages won’t be resolved until Thursday afternoon, according to AEP Ohio’s outage map.
Auglaize County’s electrical outage numbers were lower, with 20 customers powerless in the morning and none by Wednesday morning. Hardin County had 123 AEP Ohio customers without power Wednesday morning, down from 1,690 Tuesday morning.
Van Wert’s numbers dropped from 261 customers without power Tuesday morning to 42 Tuesday evening. All are anticipated to have power back by 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to AEP Ohio.
Midwest Electric saw its outages drop from 41 customers Tuesday morning to none by Wednesday morning.
Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative issued a release Tuesday saying that 800 members covering an area from New Haven, Indiana to Columbus Grove were without power after Monday’s storms, with many of them concentrated in the Kalida area. However, the cooperative reported that all affected members had power restored by 6 a.m., crediting the quick response to employees working through the night as well as the cooperative’s aggressive right-of-way tree trimming program intended to prevent trees from falling onto power lines.
Finding a cool place became paramount as temperatures topped 90 by noon Tuesday.
The Bluffton EMS building, 115 E. Washington St., was set up as a cooling station for those needing to recharge medical devices, according to an alert from Bluffton schools. The Bluffton Town Hall had originally been set up as a cooling station, but the station had to be moved when the HVAC system at the hall stopped working.
In the wake of these extreme temperatures, the Allen County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management issued an ozone alert for 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday. During this alert, Allen County residents are encouraged to carpool to work or ride a bicycle for shorter trips, park vehicles in shaded areas, avoid lawn mowing, fuel vehicles in the hours surrounding the alert and avoid cooking over charcoal.
Wind speeds of 75 mph were reported near Belmore in Putnam County, according to reports to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center. Winds estimated at 60 to 70 were reported north of Willshire in Van Wert County. There were also reports of winds of 62 mph in northern Allen County and 58 mph near Wapakoneta.
State Route 634 in Dupont in Putnam County closed Tuesday morning because of power lines across the road, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s OHGo.com. In Ottawa, the Putnam County YMCA in Ottawa closed Tuesday due to the power outage, including its summer camp. Ottawa-Glandorf schools also canceled all practices, activities and events due to the continuing power outages.
There were numerous reports of trees and power lines down across Allen County, according to the storm reports. An uprooted tree also was reported near Ohio City.
