As of 4:25 p.m. Thursday, more than 3,500 AES customers were without power, and about 18,300 Duke Energy customers were without power in Ohio and Kentucky.
The National Weather Service in Wilmington confirmed at a tornado touched down in northern Brown County and a second tornado was in Clinton and Fayette counties.
The storm was the first of a multi-day rain event around the Miami Valley that will continue through Sunday. Today’s forecast calls for high temperatures in the low 70s with a chance for showers and thunderstorms overnight.
The storms tonight could produce up to one inch of rain in some parts of the area.
Rain is in the forecast each day through Sunday, and a total of three of six inches of rain is likely.
Preventing flooding
The Miami Conservancy District, which operates and maintains a system of five flood protection dams across the region, has steps in place to ensure the Miami Valley region remains protected from potential flooding, according to the district.
The district said the weather forecast increases the risk of rising river levels and localized flooding.
The Great Miami, Mad and Stillwater rivers levels and conditions will be monitored by staff who will also operate flood gates as needed to reduce the risk of riverine flooding.
“Spring rains are not unprecedented, but this system is predicted to be heavier and produce more significant rainfall event and over a large area of our watershed than we typically experience,” said Mike Ekberg, Miami Conservancy District hydrologist. “Our dams will begin to store water, temporarily creating reservoirs behind them to manage river flow and prevent downstream flooding.”
Flood Protection System in Action
- Storage Events at All Five Dams: MCD anticipates significant water storage behind the dams to manage flow downstream.
- Gate Closures and Pump Station Operations: Gates at key locations will be closed to prevent backflow into protected areas, including the cities of Piqua, Troy, Dayton Miamisburg, West Carrollton, Franklin, Hamilton, and the Piqua pump station will be in operation as needed.
- 24-Hour Staffing at Key Locations: If necessary, the staff will be on duty around the clock at multiple dams and flood protection features to ensure rapid response and adjustments as conditions evolve.
“The Miami Conservancy District is prepared to manage the high water along the major river systems and protect communities from destructive floodwaters,” said MaryLynn Lodor, general manager for The Miami Conservancy District. “We encourage residents to stay informed and follow safety recommendations as the situation unfolds.”
Power outage preparations
Andrew Jacobs, a regional manager for metro lines operations at AES Ohio, said before Thursday morning’s storms that they had been monitoring the severe storms and winds situation for several days and follow weather forecasts to know what to expect.
“We planned several meetings this morning, went through the safety precautions that we have internally, talked about what is expected, what is the wind mile per hour that’s coming in,” Jacobs said. “We also look at where the meteorologists are predicting where the most damaging winds might affect and then we communicate that out.”
He said they go through each department discussing how to prepare for the storm, figure out who is available to respond and giving a safety briefing.
After that, they dispatch crews onto calls and jobs, including some jobs that are pre-designated to make sure that crews know what area they’re in and what they’re doing if severe weather comes up, as well as a plan for where they can take cover.
“Part of the preparation we do, we have a couple individuals that are on the mutual aid groups,” Jacobs said. “There’s one in the Great Lakes and one down in the south area as well too. All the utilities end up talking and seeing how they are going to handle the storms and how many full-time employees that they need or crews that they need.”
He said AES has home-based crews with over 120 to 130 of their own internal crews along with 58 contractors that are currently on property.
Jacobs said that when mutual aid is needed, the companies are already aware of the possibility and are ready to go.
He added they have their own storms kits for when crews come in and it’s a way to be more efficient and safely at restoring power.
“The biggest thing about the flooding that affects us is the routes to get to some of the restoration efforts. So you have poles that go down in the middle of- right beside creek beds that actually expand with the water and you can’t get to those customers,” Jacobs said. “So a lot of times we’ll have to try to find unique ways to either find them to be able to reroute the power in some way, set a generator, do something else that we specifically can to try to get them on.”
He added that crews sometimes rent boats to get to islands or small areas, and that the number of crews can vary with specialized equipment depending on the day.
Jacobs said when it comes to restoring power, it can take a lot of time even for something as simple as a backyard issue, saying it can take time to scout, analyze and isolate the areas without power.
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