Most Butler County residents who lost power during this week's derecho should have their lights back on by the end of Thursday, Aug. 13, Duke Energy says.
The utility has restored power to roughly 223,000 of the more than 261,000 customers knocked offline since a powerful derecho tore through Greater Cincinnati on Tuesday, Aug. 11, according to a Duke Energy press release issued Thursday afternoon. That leaves 38,861 customers still without power regionwide, including 32,485 in Ohio.
Duke has not published a Butler County-specific outage count for Thursday. When the storms first hit Tuesday night, more than 2,000 Butler County customers lost power, as we reported Aug. 11. A downed tree on Hamilton Richmond Road in Butler County was among the damage documented during the storm, Fox 19 reported.
Duke Energy storm director Andy Cassidy said Thursday that nearly all customers who can safely receive service will be restored by end of day. "Our crews have made significant progress under extremely challenging conditions, but we still have substantial work ahead of us," Cassidy said in a statement reported by WLWT.
The outage map showed restoration estimates of 11:59 p.m. Thursday for many affected areas. Starting at 7 p.m. Thursday, individual customers should be able to see their specific estimated restoration time at outagemaps.duke-energy.com.
Some outages, particularly those involving broken poles, downed lines or significant equipment damage, may take longer to repair beyond the Thursday target.
What slowed restoration
Multiple rounds of severe weather followed the initial derecho, including lightning and high winds that forced crews to pause work for safety. Duke deployed more than 2,000 lineworkers, tree trimmers and damage assessors, pulling in reinforcements from Indiana and the Carolinas.
The scale was historic.
Duke spokesman John Juech told the Cincinnati Enquirer on Wednesday, Aug. 12, that this was "the highest count of outages and dispersion of damage I've seen across this region in my time at Duke."
How to check your status and report outages
Residents can check their estimated restoration time on Duke's outage map at outagemaps.duke-energy.com. To report an outage, text OUT to 57801, use the Duke Energy mobile app, visit duke-energy.com/outages or call 800-769-3766. To report downed lines or other hazards, call 800-543-5599.
The utility also urged residents to treat intersections with non-working traffic signals as four-way stops and to move over for utility trucks and first responders.
Relief funding
The Duke Energy Foundation announced $100,000 in emergency grants for storm recovery: $75,000 to Freestore Foodbank for food, water and necessities; $15,000 to the American Red Cross for shelter and disaster recovery; and $10,000 to Matthew 25: Ministries for disaster relief supplies.
Customers whose power is not restored by Friday morning can call 800-769-3766 for an individual update or check the outage map for revised estimates.
