Students probably expected to be recovering from their three-day weekend yesterday, but many area residents, along with the rest of Ohio, were forced into early weekend retirement because of the aftermath of the high winds, heavy rain and hail of Sunday’s storms.
“We had an estimated 35,000 customers in Central, Southern and Southeastern Ohio who were all without power Sunday night,” said American Electric Power spokesman Ron Robinson. “It takes major time and work to fix the damaged poles, so many people will still have outages until we can get to all of them.”
The damaged poles around campus have been an inconvenience to drivers, with many streets blocked off because of an abundance of stray power lines on the ground. The Columbus Division of Police has taken the responsibility of making sure no one is injured by the loose lines.
“We have taped off streets and neighborhoods and will continue to block traffic so that no one hits the lines,” said officer Jameson Mark. “Each officer had been assigned to a two-hour shift and will be present until this problem can be dealt with.”
As of yesterday afternoon, over 3,800 Columbus metropolitan residents were still without power. Matt Thomas, a junior in pre-pharmacy, is one of them.
“When the power first went out, I thought it would only be for an hour,” Thomas said, “but here I am almost 24 hours later, still with no power. I have no heat, no alarm, no sense of time without light, and I even had to take a candlelit shower. I don’t want to have to relocate, but I can’t live here like this.”
City workers told Thomas his electricity could be out for a few more days, along with other residents along 19th Avenue, a street that was badly hit by the storm.
Fellow neighbor Ryan McWilliams said he and his roommates have also experienced complications from the storm.
“Half of a tree fell onto my roommate’s car,” said McWilliams, a junior in mechanical engineering. “We were watching out the window when there was only a river running down our street and sparking power lines going everywhere; but then, all of a sudden, this tree just came crashing onto his hood and through his windshield.”
His car was then filled with water by the downpour and will probably be totaled.
McWilliams’ roommate’s car was estimated yesterday afternoon at over $5,000 in damages.
Many campus resident’s cars sustained damaged from the hail storm.
According to the Ohio Insurance Institute, storm victims are advised to contact their insurance agents immediately to schedule an inspection of property or car damage.
Victims are also encouraged to take pictures of the damage and secure their property from further damage, which will assist in the claims process. Additional information can be found on OII’s Web site, www.ohioinsurance.org
Property damage is not the only effect students are having – their school work is suffering as well.
“I was going to jump-start on a paper before I went out that night, but instead, I ended up sitting in the dark waiting for the lights to come back on,” Thomas said. “Not only was my paper agenda ruined by the storm, so was my trip to the bar.”
McWilliams is also feeling some of the same frustrations.
“I have gotten no work done since Sunday and will probably have to end up asking for extensions in some of my classes,” he said.
