COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine is offering help to Northeast Ohio after Tuesday’s devastating storms, but Cuyahoga County claims it’s taking care of it. Hundreds of thousands of citizens are still without power and Wi-Fi, sparking outrage among lawmakers.
Tuesday’s storm was the most severe to hit northeast Ohio since 1993, and emergency crews are still on the scene restoring power to the 400,000 customers who lost electricity.
“This is becoming a public health crisis,” said Rep. Terrence Upchurch (D-Cleveland). “It’s catastrophic.”
Upchurch lost power and Wi-Fi, but said worse is yet to come for members of his community.
“The refrigerator doesn’t work, people are losing food,” he said. “Not to mention that there are residents with health problems who depend on the electricity for their oxygen tanks.”
Torrence Hinton, president of FirstEnergy in Ohio, provided an update Friday morning on the company’s progress in restoring power to thousands of customers in northeast Ohio, saying most customers will have power restored by next Wednesday.
State Senator Kent Smith (D-Euclid) also experienced power and Wi-Fi outages and is incredibly frustrated by what he sees as FirstEnergy’s lack of preparation.
“FirstEnergy took $456 million for a grid maintenance fee when they essentially never did grid maintenance,” Smith said. “Now, if they had used that half-billion dollars to better prepare the service area, make the grid more resilient, replace aging equipment, and trim trees in places where lines could be at risk — I’m convinced that if that half-billion had been used for its intended purposes and not saved to FirstEnergy shareholders, we wouldn’t be in such a bad position today.”
The senator is the ranking Democrat on the state’s Energy and Public Utilities Committee and has been overseeing FirstEnergy since the company bribed House leadership and admitted to the $61 million bribery scheme.
FirstEnergy has repeatedly stressed that it was only a severe storm.
“The lighting company hasn’t experienced a storm like this in about 30 years,” Hinton said.
According to the president, the company is working with more than 5,000 contractors to support reconstruction.
As a result of the storm, much of News 5’s southern broadcast area was flooded by overnight storms early Friday morning.
News 5 and the Scripps Howard Fund are teaming up Friday through Monday for a tornado and flood relief textathon to benefit the Red Cross.
RELATED: News 5 and Scripps Howard Fund launch textathon for tornado and flood relief
In the face of the disaster, Upchurch, Smith and the coalition of northeastern Ohio lawmakers have appealed for help. Gov. Mike DeWine says he is listening. The governor issued a proclamation calling on all state departments and agencies to use their resources to help the region.
Ohio’s Emergency Management Agency (EMA) is monitoring the situation, DeWine said, adding in his press release that the Department of Health is currently the only request for assistance in terms of medical supplies.
“The state could potentially help utilities restore power by helping to cut down trees that block access to roads and buildings,” said Jonathan Entin, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.
But Entin explained that there is only so much the governor’s office can do. The chain of command starts with the Cuyahoga County EMA, which must ask for help. DeWine’s spokesman Dan Tierney told us that hasn’t happened yet. When the state team asked them for an assessment, Cuyahoga County reportedly declined.
State Rep. Tom Patton (R-Strongsville) said this was reprehensible.
“I don’t know what they’re doing down at the county EMA, but whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it way too slowly,” Patton said.
We pressed the agency to ask us why they hadn’t asked for help. After this article aired, spokesperson Kevin Friis spoke to us. Friis said, in a roundabout way, that they have been able to process the requests so far.
“We were able to fulfill the requests we received,” said Friis.
However, he then said they are waiting for jurisdictions within the county to contact them with requests.
“The communities have to figure out what they need first, and that takes a while,” he said. “Then tell us what they need so we can try to get it for them.”
The spokesman gave the example of requests for generators for high-rise buildings.
“We need to know how much power it needs to provide for backup power and possibly an elevator,” he added. “The applications we still have to submit to the state are ones where we need more clarity.”
Ultimately, the federal government must also get involved, said Smith.
“The federal funds are needed to compensate people who pay out of pocket for things that insurance does not cover,” Smith added.
To receive federal emergency funds, the county must reach a certain amount of damages, according to the governor’s office. Under that formula, Cuyahoga County EMA must prove it has $6.7 million in damages.
“The administrator tells you to keep your receipts,” Patton said. “If he wants to physically produce receipts or estimates for the $6.7 million, he waits too long.”
Tierney explained that it is common for FEMA to request government assistance in the form of supplies or soldiers on the ground. Patton does not understand why neither supplies nor soldiers been on the floor.
“When (the state) contacted the local community, (Cuyahoga County) said ‘we have everything under control,'” Patton said, recalling his Friday morning Zoom call with NEO lawmakers, the Public Utilities Commission, the Ohio EMA, the governor’s office and Cuyahoga County. “To this day, three days later, 196,000 people are still without power – and they think The is under control?”
“Do you think the County EMA is failing the residents of Northeast Ohio?” I asked Patton.
“Absolutely. The people of Cuyahoga County pay their taxes to the state to receive this kind of help when disaster strikes, and the fact that anyone at the county level is hesitant to ask the state for help is beyond me,” Patton responded. “They’re failing Ohio.”
Like Patton, Upchurch said the utility’s inaction and lack of preparation require change.
“It is imperative that legislative work be done so that we can prevent this from happening again,” Upchurch said.
The governor’s team said they are ready to help as soon as they hear from Cuyahoga County.
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