Dayton tornadoes: Power restored to DP&L customers

UPDATE @ 6:00 a.m. (June 7): Crews have restored power to all of the areas that were signifacantly impacted by the Memorial Day tornadoes, according to DP&L.

DP&L predicted that all impacted customers would be able to receive service by the end of this week, and as of last night, the last area with significant power loss as a result of the tornadoes was rebooted.

“Everyone who can receive service, power has been restored”, DP&L spokeswoman MaryAnn Kabel said.

If you re unable to receive service due to storm damage, visit DP&L's website for more information.

UPDATE @ 3:00 a.m (June 4): Less than 2,000 Dayton Power & Light customers are without power after more than a dozen tornadoes hit the Miami Valley on Memorial Day.

1,928 DP&L customers in Montgomery County do not have power as of Tuesday.

Explore>> Trotwood apartment complex condemned after vicious EF4 tornado

In Greene County, six customers are without power and five customers in Darke County do not have service.

According to DP&L, crews have restored power to more than 92 percent of impacted customers.

Free ice can be picked up at Triangle Park, 2680 Ridge Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.

UPDATE @ 4:42 a.m. (June 2):

Progress is still being made in restoring power across the Miami Valley, according to the DP&L outage map. In Montgomery County, which has the most outages remaining, 6,001 customers are without electricity, while in Greene County 744 are still without power.

However, new outages in Logan County in the vicinity of Indian Lake reported at about 12:40 a.m. Sunday boosted the number of people who have lost power by more than 1,000.

Along with small numbers of outages in Preble, Union, and Van Wert counties, there are currently 7,845 customers without power.

INITIAL REPORT:

DP&L says it is on track to restore power to 90 percent of customers by midnight tonight.

Power has been restored to more than 60,000 of the 70,000 that were initially impacted.

Nearly 1,600 people are working to restore power, according to DP&l.

The remaining 10 percent of customers still in the dark are in the hardest hit areas.

>> HOW TO GET HELP: Emergency shelter locations for those impacted by storms

“Many of these customers had extensive damage to their homes or business and electrical infrastructure,” said DP&L in a statement. “Sadly, they will not be able to receive service until they have been repaired or rebuilt.”

“Some of the biggest repairs in the most devastated areas, from Brookville all the way into east Dayton and into Beavercreek, some of those will certainly go into next week,” Bruce Coppock, senior director of operations, said Thursday.

Deconstructing those pockets of neighborhoods, where the system has been devastated, and completely rebuilding everything will be incredibly time consuming, Coppock said.

>> Miami Valley Tornadoes: What you need to know

Coppock said in his 25 years with DP&L, the damage to the utility’s infrastructure from the 14 tornadoes that hit the region Memorial Day evening ranks somewhere between Hurricane Ike and “one of our biggest ice storms.”

His records go back 15 years and he wasn’t around, so he said he can’t compare what happened this week to the Xenia tornado outbreak in the 1970s.

Monday night, the tornadoes brought down 50 transmission poles, each carrying 69,000 to 138,000 volts.

Three towers, carrying 345,000 volts each, were brought down. A helicopter company from Pennsylvania has been hired to help rebuild the towers.

“In my 25 years, we’re never had one go down,” Coppock said.

Traffic backups and slowdowns because of all the damage has hampered crews trying to move from job to job. He asked the public to be patient with DP&L crews and the 750 field techs from other states that are in the area to help.

Coppock also urged everyone -- especially children who are being let out of school for the summer - to be extra careful to avoid downed lines.

“If you don’t assume it to be energized, things can go extremely bad extremely quickly,” he said. “The assumption that everything is energized is no more important than it is right now.”

DP&L officials encourage residents to visit their website for the latest information as it relates to restoration. They'll also continue their daily water and ice distribution from 10 a.m to 6 p.m.

DP&L is distributing ice at the following locations from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.: