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Before June 14, 2022, most residents of Wayne County had never heard the term Derecho. But for those who experienced the horrific storm that evening, they won’t soon forget.
A derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms. According to the American Meteorological Society, a derecho must be at least 60 miles wide and travel for a distance of roughly 400 miles or longer.
Lightning and straight-lines winds nearing 90 miles per hour crossed through the state of Ohio that Monday night, toppling trees and power lines, causing many to lose power.
Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative, Inc. is a distribution co-op, as their substations feed to members. After the storm hit, 75% of members were without power, and 10 of the 18 substations were out. “Every storm is a little different, but with this one, the damage was obvious, so our members knew it would be a while before power could be restored,” stated Robyn Tate, human resources and community relations director.
Despite having an emergency work plan, in which a lot of preparation goes into, including playing out numerous scenarios, thinking of back-up plans and making sure all contacts are current, Holmes-Wayne Electric knew they would need extra help. “With this storm, it was the size of the trees that went down,” stated Stacy Shaw, safety director and line supervisor, who managed the storm. “It took several hours to find lines buried under those trees. In some areas, it took a couple days just to cut through the trees, before we could even start putting the electric poles back up.”
Since other areas of the state were also dealing with power outages, Ohio couldn’t fill all the requests for extra crews, so some came from out-of-state to assist. Holmes-Wayne Electric normally has 42 staff members, it was 250 during the storm.
According to Tate and Shaw, this is the largest storm they’ve dealt with. Their best comparison is the 2004 ice storm. During the 2004 storm, there were 110 broken poles. June’s storm had 252. “Each pole can take between four to six hours to replace,” stated Shaw. “It depends on the amount of equipment on the pole and how easy it is to access it.”
Not only were they dealing with the extreme heat, but they were also at the mercy of those who were clearing roads and moving trees. For example, in neighboring Holmes County, at one point, 90% of the roads were closed. They also had to be careful of generators back feeding lines. After the 2004 ice storm, many members of the Cooperative now own generators. Of course, with all of this, safety remained the top concern for all crews and members.
Holmes-Wayne Electric provided hotel rooms for crews. “It was a team effort to get it all organized,” stated Shaw. “We have an amazing staff.” Even though Millersburg and Wooster have increased numbers of hotels, it was challenging, because some local hotels didn’t have power or were already booked due to summertime travels and area events. “We utilized hotels in Millersburg, Wooster, Ashland, Mt. Hope, Loudonville, and then Berlin, once their power was restored,” said Tate. “Holmes-Wayne Electric doesn’t have a hotel as a member, so we couldn’t even work quickly to restore it for crews. We had to rely on others.”
To work more efficiently, Holmes-Wayne Electric also provided meals for crews. They worked with the local hotels to serve breakfast at 5 a.m., as crews began their day by 6. Five or six employees would deliver meals to the crews throughout the day. Those delivering the lunches would also check with crews and deliver small, needed items to help save time. Dinner was served at the Co-Op each night. “The first night, we were making sandwiches in the parking lot,” stated Tate. “Once more power was restored, we worked with restaurants for catered meals. It was hard to fit crews into our breakroom to eat, but we made it work.”
The community also offered to feed crews, but it’s hard for individuals to feed 250 people, but trays of cookies and other items were still provided. Of course, as crews worked near houses, residents would offer them drinks, fruits and desserts.
Not only did Holmes-Wayne Electric employees become caterers, but they also became launderers. “We became a village,” exclaimed Tate. “We asked, how can we support the line crews, so they in turn, can help get member’s power back on.”
“We wanted visiting crews to be linemen at all times, so we offered laundry services to them,” added Tate. “If they dropped off their laundry, employees of Holmes-Wayne Electric would launder it the next day and return it to them the following day.”
Linemen were working 16–20-hour days. “We wanted them to still have a decent night’s sleep, however, they still had to deal with unexpected emergencies popping up,” stated Shaw. “For example, car accidents hitting downed trees or poles.”
Serving a rural area, Holmes-Wayne Electric’s restoration looked different than AEP, who serves more cities/towns. There are seven members per mile for Holmes-Wayne Electric, where AEP has 35 customers per mile. “For one member, we had to set five poles to restore power,” stated Shaw. “There are definitely pros and cons to country living.”
Holmes-Wayne Electric estimates the storm had an economic impact of $4 million to their business. “We’re a small company with $48 million annual sales (power use),” said Tate.
AEP was prepared for the possibility of power outages that June night but didn’t expect it to be one of Ohio’s biggest weather events in the past 10 years.
As temperatures climbed and the demand for energy grew, some transmission lines ended up operating above capacity, also requiring forced outages. By Tuesday evening, 250,000 AEP customers didn’t have power across the state.
The final tally of damage across AEP Ohio’s service territory was more than 450 electric poles and 2,100 spans of wire down, plus 200 broken crossarms. AEP’s Northeast Ohio territory, including Steubenville, New Philadelphia and Wooster, were among the hardest hit, with 184 poles needing replaced and 860 spans of wire down.
Like Holmes-Wayne Electric, AEP crews were working 16-hour days to repair the damage. Overall, AEP had three times their daily average working, including 569 full-time employees, 929 contract employees, 470 tree-trimmers and 572 transmission employees, some from out-of-state.
AEP utilized Village Catering Co. to feed crews. “Green Local Schools graciously allowed us to use their cafeteria, which was a great central location with plenty of room for all the power trucks to park each day,” said Brian Sayre, president of Village Catering Co. “We fed nearly 750-1500 workers per day for four-days,” continued Sayre. “It was a great opportunity for us to feed these hard-working men and women that came together from many different parts of the country. Their ability to mobilize as a team so quickly and restore power was impressive. We were privileged to be able to speak with crew members and hear their stories from the workday, it was really something!”
The restoration in Wooster required offroad work driving through fields and heavily wooded areas just to access equipment, making progress slow-going. By Monday, June 20, all power was restored across the state.
While crews were working across the area, the Wayne County Commissioners were very involved behind the scenes locating crews with equipment that could handle storm damage, cleanup and debris removal. “The Commissioners were in close contact with the local EMA, vendors, contractors and state agencies trying to locate credentialed crews that could perform the work,” state Dan Starcher, public communications, Office of the Board of Commissioners. “Due to the scale of the storm, the best way to handle the cleanup was having each township, village, etc., get debris to a central location, and then a larger vehicle would come and gather all debris,” continued Starcher.
Safety remained the number one priority of the Commissioners, and after touring the storm damaged areas, a state of emergency was declared on June 17. “Declaring a state of emergency allows for a suspension of policy that’s in place,” stated Starcher. “For example, under normal circumstances, a bidding process must be followed for large monetary purchases. When a state of emergency is declared, the bid process is negated and only quotes are required to hire cleanup crews.”
The total amount of damage is still being assessed, as people wait on their insurance companies to assess their properties. Unlike the fast-moving derecho, the process is slow going and some people are still cleaning up. However, Wayne County’s June 14 storm damage is estimated at approximately $4.3 million.
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