CLEANUP UNDERWAY — Crews from Frontier were in Wellsburg Wednesday afternoon, clearing an area of debris along Main Street in an effort to restore service for area residents and businesses. -- Craig Howell

Communities throughout the Upper Ohio Valley continue to grapplie with the after-effects of the damaging winds that downed trees and power lines throughout the tri-county area Tuesday — a list that includes a local animal shelter and one community’s water and wastewater operations.

According to Mon Power, as of 7 p.m. Wednesday, 7,053 out of 11,624 Brooke County customers remained without power, with an estimated restoration by 11 p.m. today.

Those outages included the entirety of the Beech Bottom, Bethany, and Windsor Heights communities, as well as much of Colliers. Follansbee saw 1,469 of its 3,373 customers still without power, while the Wellsburg area had 3,237 of its 4,261 customers awaiting restoration.

Hancock County, meanwhile, had fewer than 700 customers in the dark, including just over 100 households in Weirton, 307 of 3,123 in New Cumberland, and 218 of 2,528 in Chester.

AEP was reporting 8,948 customer outages by Wednesday night in Jefferson County, and 1,318 in Columbiana County, with Wellsville residents among the hardest hit.

UNDER WARNING — Alyssa Stegner, of the Unionport area, reported receiving a tornado warning around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, later finding several trees snapped in half and fallen onto her livestock fencing. -- Contributed

Winds speeds were in excess of 70 miles per hour, both utilities noted.

In Follansbee, Mayor David Velegol said Wednesday they’re bringing in three 500-watt generators to make sure water and wastewater operations are uninterrupted. With no power, he said they can’t run the pumps so tank levels are dropping.

“If our pumps stay down, we’re in trouble,” he said. “Right now we’re relying on water stored in our tanks (and) they’re getting low. We’re bringing (generators) in and having them installed at the wastewater plant.

“Losing water is bad but wastewater is worse,” he added. “We want to make sure everything is treated before it’s discharged.”

He said a lot of trees were downed, including in the Archer Hill area. “I see downed trees, some people with those plastic fences had them blown in the yards,” he said. “There’s a lot of tree damage.”

BROKEN – Tuesday’s storm broke this large tree located in the Brady Circle area of Steubenville. -- Contributed

Follansbee’s municipal building was without power Wednesday, though he said some workers went to work anyway to work on urgent tasks, like payroll, even though computers were down.

“The biggest thing affecting people right now is not having power,” he said. “Originally (they) said we might not have it until Sunday, but I just got a notice for Highland Hills, where I live, that we may have power there tomorrow night.”

“I know a couple people had to leave town because they’re on oxygen and there was no power to keep their equipment working,” he added.

A number of business were impacted, including Walgreen’s and McDonald’s — though Velegol said the fast food outlet’s manager said she was “bringing a generator in so can get back in business.” Velegol said Brightwood Center, a nursing home in Hooverson Heights, was operating on a generator Wednesday.

In Jefferson County, the Animal Shelter in Wintersville was still without power Wednesday afternoon.

ON THE GROUND – Tuesday’s storm hit nearly every area of the Ohio Valley, including at the home of Sue Call, who resides a mile outside of East Springfield on county Road 39 in Bloomingdale. Trees split and were knocked to the ground in her yard, as was the case at many local residents’ homes. -- Contributed

“We’re hoping it comes on soon,” one county official said. “They have emergency lighting inside and it’s cool enough today they can put them in the outside runs.”

Auditor E.J. Conn said he, personally, got off relatively easy – his home just lost power, so he borrowed a generator and hooked it up. His father, on the other hand, had “around a dozen trees around his property that come down.”

“They weren’t all his trees,” he said, “but he got lucky, they didn’t fall on any structures. I saw another house, in the area of Eisenhower Road, that had the back porch completely ripped off and it landed on the roof of the house. It looked like that area got a lot of damage comparative to the other areas I’ve seen.. I saw a tree on a house (in another area), but it seemed like the damage in that area was way worse.”

Conn, meanwhile, said any property owner with severe structural damage caused by the storm should contact the auditor’s office, either in person or by calling (740) 283-8518. A representative will be assigned to go to the property and reassess the home, taking into account the damage done to the structure.

“It’s in order to get a temporary reduction in property value,” Conn said. “I’ve seen several homes with large trees fallen through them, a lot of roof and potential water damage.”

He said residents should call his office at (740) 283-8518 to request assistance.

“If a Jefferson County resident does have damage, like a tree that fell on their house or I think there was one house that pretty much burned down, call us,” Conn said. “We’ll send someone out to appraise it taking the damage into account and lower it until they can get it fixed.”

Steubenville City Manager Jim Mavromatis said the damaging winds toppled trees and power lines.

“Our guys are out there trying to clean up the mess that was left behind,” Mavromatis said.

During Tuesday’s council meeting he’d reported at least 19 trees were down across the city, but on Wednesday he said there very likely were more than that.

“On Braybarton, there was a big tree completely across the road, blocking Braybarton,” he said. “Wilma had a tree down in the street and wind blew out a store window on Market Street. There’s damage throughout the city to different areas, without question.”

Steubenville Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi said his crews “dealt with a lot of trees down and downed powers line, we had a number of calls from the time of the storm through well into the night.”

“We were busy with that until about midnight,” Capaldi said. “AEP was busy everywhere and you can’t leave a live power line down so we basically stayed on the scene until AEP got there, we left a truck to make sure (everyone was safe).”

“They were in and out all night long,” Capaldi added. “We had well over 30 calls yesterday – that’s busy, on an average day we might have 12 or 13 calls, but we had over 30 and probably 20 of them were storm damage calls between 5 p.m. and midnight.”

City firefighters also responded to Wintersville, one of their mutual aid partners, to assist at a structure fire on Cadiz Road,

“There was just a lot of stuff in a short amount of time–power lines, arcing electrical windstorm damage, trees,” Capaldi added. “I think up on Labelle, a tree came down on top of a car parked in a driveway. No one was injured but a tree limb came down on top of it. When you get a lot of calls in a short amount of time, it just stretches whatever resources you have but we got it done.”

Greg Moore, director for the Brooke County Emergency Management Agency and Emergency Management Services, explained Tuesday’s storm has caused damage throughout the entire county.

Moore commented multiple telephone poles, electrical wires and trees have been downed.

Anyone who notices a tree lying across the road is asked to call 911, Moore concluded.

In an effort to help repair what Mother Nature has destroyed, Moore stated the state has been cleaning the roads. However, there are still many power lines down across Brooke County. He stressed that drivers should heed any signs declaring there is a road closure, as there is the possibly of a power line lying in the roadway — and it is not known if that wire is live or dead.

He announced there are some local organinzations assisting area residents during this time of need, including a shelter that has been set up at the Wellsburg Fire Station. The Beech Bottom Fire Department hosted a cookout Wednesday evening, while also offering generators for any resident needing to charge phones or other devices.

Moore remarked the American Red Cross is also available to people, as are Catholic Charities.

His biggest piece of advice to residents is to make sure to stay away from downed power lines and to report any to a 911 operator.

Those with the Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency have been working with the local chapter of the American Red Cross, having made contact with officials prior to the storm arriving Tuesday afternoon, explained the EMA’s director, John Parker.

Parker said those who are in need of its services can reach out to the nonprofit for assistance.

He stated local first responders have come together and coordinated efforts to help out communities, with residents asked to contact their local EMS, fire department, police station or sheriff’s department to assist them in the necessary help, as the agencies are all on stand-by.

“We still have sporadic power out in all areas of the county,” Parker stated Wednesday afternoon. “The North, Central and South ends are still cleaning up debris from last night’s storm. “We still have trees down but AEP is on site in multiple locations throughout the county.”

Parker, who was out in the field during the day, noted the weather was pleasant on Wednesday, and he hoped this would expedite restoration times for those who have been without power since Tuesday afternoon.

“AEP has been getting to a lot of the people and the timelines are actually increasing for the power coming on,” Parker added.

When asked what someone should do if they see a tree has fallen on a powerline, he responded if the damage was done on the roadway, the incident should be reported immediately. If the accident occurred somewhere that is off road, residents should contact their local government official, AEP or their fire department to report the incident. Parker said 911 should be used in emergency situations only.

Rob Herrington, director of the Jefferson County 911 Center and fire chief and paramedic for Wintersville Fire and Rescue, stated the number of incidents which occurred Tuesday following the storm, was primarily fallen trees, power lines and snapped poles.

“A lot of roads are temporarily closed along state Route 43 in Richmond and East Springfield,” Herrington began. He said the roads had the be closed while crews cleared trees from the roads.

Within the first hour of the storm, there were 300 incidents,” Herrington continued.

The commented there were larger incidents that occurred Tuesday afternoon and evening.

A structure fire was reported at 5 p.m. on Rinker Road in Steubenville when a mobile home caught fire. At 10:49 p.m., a house was reported to be on fire on Ellsworth Street in Wintersville, following the occupants grilling on their back porch when the wind blew the grill over and caused the home to catch fire.

Other than those two incidents, the remainder of the damage done Tuesday was primarily damage done by trees. There has not been a report of any loss of life or injuries resulting from the storm, Herrington said.

“Lots of structures have been damaged from the trees falling, and there are verying amounts of damage but no other significant incidents aside from the two fires,” he continued.

“There are still a lot of outages,” Herrington sreported, noting the power should be restored by approximately midnight on Thursday, as crews continue their work.

Herrington stated residents who rely on medical devices such as electric oxygen tanks or machines have had EMS officials come to aid them during the power outages.

All of the officials commented how everyone has been working together during this time to ensure the safety of residents and to help whenever possible.