POMEROY — A spokesperson from American Electric Power Ohio said approximately 2,000 customers were without power at some point in Meigs County during the outages sparked by Wednesday’s windstorm.

Yesterday at 1:30 p.m., Meigs County Emergency Management Agency Director Robert Byer said approximately 770 county residents, including customers of both AEP and Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative, were still without power. By 6 p.m. yesterday, AEP was reporting 267 customers in Meigs County were still without power while BREC was reporting 63 customers in Meigs County were still without power though BREC hoped to have them restored by the end of the day. AEP was estimating power restored to all customers in Meigs County at 11:59 p.m. Saturday.

Also at 6 p.m. yesterday AEP was reporting 489 customers in Gallia County, 577 in Athens County and 16,090 in Franklin County were still without power. At the windstorm’s peak, approximately 145,000 AEP Ohio customers were without power and by 6 p.m. yesterday that number was down to 70,000.

Byer said winds moved across Meigs County at 60 miles per hour on Wednesday, sending emergency personnel from practically every volunteer fire department scrambling on calls, mostly for downed power lines and trees.

Wednesday night the wind knocked out two of three phases of electricity the Eastern Local School District relies on to run its two buildings, according to Superintendent Rick Edwards. Edwards said the power was completely restored a little before 8 a.m. yesterday, causing the district to initially be operating on a two hour delay. However, shortly after that announcement the power went off again and was still not back on as of 4 p.m. yesterday with Edwards uncertain about whether or not students will be in class today.

As reported in yesterday’s The Daily Sentinel, the villages of Pomeroy and Middleport sustained downed tress and residential property damage from the winds. As for the outlying villages, Racine Mayor J. Scott Hill said the high winds blew over a number of trees, power lines and roofing materials in residential areas in Racine. Hill said an entire roof was ripped from a mobile home near the Star Mill Park area. As for damage to village property, Hill said it was minimal with a tree falling in the old cemetery, a radio antenna damaged on the Racine Municipal Building and bleachers damaged at Star Mill Park.

In Rutland Mayor Lowell Vance said as far as he knew the village was lucky and escaped any major damage. Vance said severe winds did lift a carport off the ground on Wednesday, blew it across Nelson Road, past the Rutland Free Will Baptist Church where it landed on phone lines and dangled over Main Street. The Rutland Fire Department was called to secure and clean up the scene.

Syracuse Mayor Eric Cunningham said the village was also lucky and sustained no damage to village property and there was minor property damage done in residential areas. Cunningham said like many other villages, there were trees down and damage done to porches and roofs.