About 1,000 line workers, tree trimmers and support crews assembled Aug. 13, at the former Tri-County Mall site on Princeton Pike in Springdale, fanning out across Greater Cincinnati to restore electricity to the nearly 40,000 Duke Energy customers still in the dark two days after Tuesday's derecho.
The cleared 76-acre lot at 11700 Princeton Pike served as a staging ground for the restoration effort, WLWT reported. Trucks and crews dispatched from the site to neighborhoods where fallen trees, broken poles and damaged equipment have kept the lights off since the storms hit the evening of Aug. 11.
No timeline has been set.
At the storm's peak, more than 180,000 Duke Energy customers across Ohio and Kentucky lost power. By Aug. 12, outages had dropped to about 101,000, including 59,269 in Hamilton County. The utility said it restored power to more than 171,000 customers in the first 24 hours but had not announced an estimated restoration date for the remaining outages.
Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky president Amy Spiller acknowledged the work extends beyond flipping switches back on.
"Our employees and contractors are working around the clock to restore power, but recovery doesn't end when the lights come back on," Spiller said in a statement released Aug. 13.
Alongside the restoration push, the Duke Energy Foundation announced $100,000 in emergency grants to three local nonprofits: $75,000 to Freestore Foodbank for food, water and necessities; $15,000 to the American Red Cross for shelter operations and disaster recovery; and $10,000 to Matthew 25: Ministries for disaster relief supplies, hygiene kits and cleaning products. The foundation is funded by Duke Energy shareholders, not customer rates.
Duke Energy spokesman John Juech told Fox 19 on Wednesday that fallen trees, broken poles and damaged equipment were slowing restoration across the region.
Residents still without power can report outages by texting OUT to 57801, using the Duke Energy mobile app, visiting duke-energy.com/outages or calling 800-769-3766. Duke Energy's interactive outage map shows real-time restoration progress.
