After days of heavy wind, severe storms and city-wide power outages, business at Ohio State is expected to return to normal.
Gov. John Kasich declared a state of emergency after Friday’s storm produced 80 mph winds that blew through the campus area, leaving some off-campus residents without electricity in the midst of a heat wave. The storm left about 1 million Ohio residents without power.
Around 12:20 a.m. Sunday, 13 counties in Ohio reported outages as a result of the Friday storm, according to American Electric Power Ohio. In Franklin County, 145,876 remained without electricity.
Power still had not returned to all residences in the immediate off-campus area Sunday afternoon, when another severe storm hit.
The Sunday storm brought 50 mph winds and left more Ohio residents without power. Baseball-sized hail was reported in some areas.
AEP estimated it could be another week before power is restored statewide, but campus operations are expected to return to normal Monday.
The university emailed a storm damage update Sunday evening that said power had been restored to campus, including the Wexner Medical Center. Power had not been restored at branch campuses including OSU-Newark and OSU-Lima, which are scheduled to be closed Monday.
Normal operations are scheduled to continue Monday at campuses in Marion, Mansfield and Wooster.
To accommodate those without power, The Office of Student Life at the RPAC will be open 5:45 a.m. to 10:00 p.m Monday and Tuesday for anyone with a valid BuckID or Medical Center ID in need of a place to shower.
The email also advised students and staff to be cautious when approaching the campus area due to traffic light outages and debris generated from the storm.
Damage on OSU’s Columbus campus was mostly the result of falling trees and limbs.
