Thousands still without power, Toledo continues to clean up from Wednesday night storms

TOLEDO, Ohio — Editor’s note: The above video originally aired Thursday, July 27. 

Two days after severe weather swept through the Toledo region, causing wind damage and some flooding, the area is continuing to clean up and recover. 

As of 1:11 a.m. Saturday, 1,240 First Energy customers in Lucas County still were without power, according to the company’s outage map. 948 of these customers were in the city of Toledo, according to the site. 

FirstEnergy was reporting on Friday afternoon that the company expected to have electricity restored to these customers by Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the Toledo region has been hit Friday by the hottest temperatures of the year so far. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory Thursday and the city opened cooling centers to help people get relief, especially as many are now without electricity.

Toledo’s trash-collection provider, Republic Service, also lost power at its local offices during Wednesday’s storm. Through the city the company announced Friday power had been restored, but officials had made some changes to normal trash-collection operations. 

Due to Friday’s extreme heat, workers collecting garbage for the city’s Trash Assistance Program, which is for people who need help with their trash bins, would not be able to take the bins back to participants’ houses as usual. Instead workers will return Saturday, when temperatures are lower, to take the bins back to TAP participants’ houses.

The company also announced guidelines for picking up debris from the storm:

• Wood/branches must be bundled and tied no larger than 2 feet by 4 feet and not heavier than 40 pounds. 
• If the piles are just dragged to the curb, crews will be unable to recover safely.
• Republic Service will recover on the normal bulk day. (Please call them if possible).
• No special runs can be done at this time due to the power outage Republic Services experienced.

The city’s Department of Forestry also is helping with the clean up. Crews are focusing on clearing the streets that remain closed due to downed trees and wires. Some of the forestry department’s is dependent on Toledo Edison clearing wires and poles first. All of the city’s urban beautification crews, which work to clean up blight, improve streetscapes and do other maintenance, are working 12-hour shifts to assist with cleaning up storm debris, the city said.