STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — A power outage at AEP on Tuesday morning left more than 2,000 people without electricity.
After a theft at a power plant that supplies electricity to the area caused the problem, authorities are asking the public for help.
The power outage also meant that traffic lights did not work and businesses were unable to offer their services.
RELATED: After theft at the local power plant, the power supply has been restored, 2,000 people are without electricity
“If you don’t have power, there’s nothing you can do,” said Scott Campbell, co-owner of M&M Hardware.
Tuesday’s power outage left business owners without electricity for hours while crews worked to resolve the problem and restore power to affected parts of the community.
“It’s so frustrating because you’re open and ready for business, but then you don’t have power,” Campbell said. “You rely on so much power for everything, whether it’s the cash register, the credit card reader, the internet; all of those things are affected when you don’t have power. So when you don’t have power, you don’t have business and people come in, they want to be served, they just run in, get an item and wonder how they’re going to charge for it? So it’s really frustrating.”
The outage was caused by damage to a power plant that supplied electricity to the area. Workers were forced to turn off the power to safely carry out repair work while they replaced equipment. The outage occurred during the busiest hours for local businesses.
“It’s been very hectic because normally our customers are used to being able to pick up and take their food at 10 a.m., and now we’re starting everything late, including the hot food,” said Katy Lucas of Sunset Market and Deli.
“We probably had people from outside come to us who had no idea, but unfortunately our regular customers are used to it.”
“We’re relying on being open, and then it gets difficult because they can’t give us an exact timeline of how long the power will be out,” Campbell said. “We have our connections who know who’s working on it, and they give us an estimate. Then do you keep your employees? Do you send them home? Every little piece of the puzzle has to be put back together.”
