Power outage tales: Seniors go 3 days without running water after backup generator fails
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Monday's severe storm struck, severing power. Then the backup water pump generator never started.
For three days of sweltering heat, more than 40 seniors at Green Acres Mobile Home Park in Ashland County were without running water.
By Thursday afternoon the wishes of 67-year-old Ralph Lake and his wife had been answered after days of complaining to their landlord.
Their management company, Spruce Tree Village, rented a new generator and water is flowing again.
With restored running water, Lake and his neighbors now join thousands of other people across Wayne, Ashland and Holmes counties who wait for their power to come back on.
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Utility crews have worked around the clock, but repairs might have been slowed by another hot day and more storms on Thursday.
Generator failed when residents needed it most
The generator failed when they needed it most, Lake said.
As temperatures skyrocketed Wednesday and Thursday, most of the residents in the senior community struggled to access clean water.
Before the generator arrived, some used buckets and rope to fetch water from a nearby pond, while others drove miles to refill or buy bottled water, he said.
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"Some used pond water to flush their toilets," he said. "We eventually received two gallons of water per trailer yesterday and today, but what am I going to do with just two gallons of water?"
To stay cool, some residents slept on their porches, lived in their cars or stayed with nearby family, Lake said.
"We're staying cool by driving around in our car," he said. "We're lucky enough to be able to do that."
Though with gas hovering around $5 per gallon in many areas, it's not a practical alternative for some.
Spruce Tree Village sent a repairman to the property Thursday morning, Luke said.
He was told the generator was last serviced in 2012, was too small to power the water pump and could not be repaired.
"From what I was told, it never ran and never could support the pump," Lake said. "I hope this means we get a new generator."
Spruce Tree Village did not respond Thursday afternoon to phone requests for comment.
When power should be restored
Three days after storms took down powerlines, electric companies are starting to make some headway.
While thousands remain without electricity in the tri-county area, that number has decreased from over 11,000 affected AEP customers to nearly 8,200 by Thursday morning, according to the AEP outage map.
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Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative reported nearly 5,600 customers without power who could be restored by Friday or Saturday nights.
The Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative announced that 50% of their customers had power as of Wednesday night.
Around 75% are estimated to have power restored by Friday at midnight while 90% are estimated to be restored by Sunday at midnight, according to their Facebook page.
The cooperative reported over 100 broken poles. It could take between four and six hours to replace a single pole depending on the location and other factors, they said on Facebook.
Four substations are under repair by the cooperative's transmission supplier while 35 visiting tree trimming crews are working around the clock to remove debris.
Nearly 30 visiting line crews are restringing power lines across the Wayne and Holmes county area, they said.
"(Thursday) will be another challenging day with extreme heat and predicted storms," the cooperative wrote on Facebook. "Please be assured that we have all hands on deck and hope to make significant strides throughout the day."
Utility crews from West Virginia and Pennsylvania drove to Ashland to help rebuild miles of infrastructure, said Mark Rafeld, the director at the Ashland County Emergency Management Agency.
"This is probably the worst tree damage in my almost 15 years in the job," Rafeld said.
The cause of such widespread damage is being blamed on intense wind gusts called macrobursts and an EF1 tornado that touched down in Richland and Ashland counties.
According to Cleveland Meteorologist Keith Jaszka, the twister touched ground at 11:33 p.m. Monday, three miles north of Butler in Richland County and ended four miles south of Perrysville in Ashland County.
The estimated maximum wind was 105 mph, Jaszka said.
Escaping the heat without electricity
Heather Hutchinson sat at a corner desk surrounded by notebooks and her laptop, studying for her educational psychology graduate program in the cool Wayne County Public Library air Wednesday evening.
Monday's severe storms knocked out power at her home in Fredericksburg, leaving her with no internet or air conditioning.
"I needed Wi-Fi to get my work done for Kent State," said Hutchinson, one of nearly a dozen people taking advantage of the library cooling and charging station.
Other stations were opened across Wooster and Holmes County as temperatures reached into the 90s Wednesday and Thursday.
Tiras Tatum sat at a library desk reading a magazine. The Wooster resident said his home on North Street was an oven without electricity.
"I'd probably be sweating around at home or sitting in the shade somewhere if it weren't for the library," he said.
Reach Bryce by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com
On Twitter: @Bryce_Buyakie
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Three days without running water, Green Acres seniors get a generator
