By Margie Wuebker
mwuebker@dailystandard.com Storms rumbled into the Grand Lake St. Marys area Friday afternoon packing rain, hail, thunder and lightning.
Both Dayton Power & Light Co. and Midwest Electric reported power outages beginning when the first wave hit around 3:30 p.m. followed by a second installment about 30 minutes later.
"Our problems involved lightning hitting fuses on the poles," said Scott Kelly, director of operations for DP&L.
Resulting power outages affected 170 customers, including 140 in the Burkettsville area, at the height of the storm. By 9:15 p.m., power had been restored to all but 30 DP&L customers scattered throughout the county.
Kelly added the remainder would have electrical service shortly. However, he could not provide an estimate regarding actual time. Midwest officials reported 130 members of the energy cooperative were without electrical service due to the same storms. Affected customers were in areas near Fort Recovery, Coldwater, St. Marys, Buckland, Fort Amanda and Spencerville. Crews expected all service to be restored by late Friday night.
Area residents encountered scattered hail between Rockford and Celina. Unofficial rainfall totals ranged from .15 of an inch in Celina to .79 of an inch in the Fort Recovery area. Unconfirmed reports indicated Shelby County received drenching rain of three inches or more.
The Mercer County Sheriff's Office and Celina Police Department fielded no calls regarding significant storm damage. |
