Power crews across Ohio have been preparing for high winds and rain since this morning.
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As previously reported on News Center 7 at 5:30, AES Ohio crews are preparing for severe weather Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
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“Meteorologists are predicting where the most damaging winds might affect,” Regional Manager of AES Ohio Andrew Jacobs said. “Then we communicate that out, we go through department by department about who’s ready and how we get prepared for this storm as well.”
The power company has multiple crews across the Miami Valley before the storm.
Jacob says this allows them to respond to a wide area quickly, as soon as it’s safe for crews.
“If outages do occur, we want to respond in a timely fashion,” Jacobs said.
Crews take their bucket trucks to downed lines and work quickly to restore power, but not every crew can get to work in the middle of the storm.
“Wind conditions, it’s a big thing, right? Usually about 25 miles per hour, we hold the guys down from flying in buckets for safety reasons,” Jacobs said.
But wind isn’t the only thing that can prevent crews from restoring power, and tonight’s rain could pose a problem.
“With the water, you can’t get to those customers,” Jacobs said. “A lot of times we try to find unique ways to reroute the power someway, get a generator, or do something we can to get them on. Sometimes we have to rent boats for some areas.”
News Center 7 spoke with Miami Valley residents who said, even if their power goes out, they hope crews will prioritize staying safe.
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