CINCINNATI - Major League Baseball's All-Stars will be given the day off on Wednesday following tonight's midsummer classic at Great American Ball Park. Meanwhile, hundreds of Duke Energy line technicians, contractors and others will continue to replace poles, hang new power lines, clear trees and more in an effort to restore power following devastating storms on Monday and today.
Earlier this afternoon, Mother Nature - reportedly upset for not being selected to appear in tonight's All-Star Game - dealt the Cincinnati area another blow with severe weather that knocked out power to thousands of Duke Energy customers in southeastern Ohio and northern Kentucky.
As of 9:30 p.m., Duke Energy crews have restored power to nearly 132,000 customers in Ohio and Kentucky, though roughly 36,000 customers are still without power due to this week's storms. The majority of today's weather system impacted Duke Energy customers in Clermont County, Ohio.
Duke Energy crews and contractors continue to work nonstop to restore power.
"Prior to this afternoons storm, we were concentrating on the roughly 5,000 outages that remained on our system as a result of yesterday's storm," said Howard Fowler, Duke Energys Midwest storm coordinator. "We've remained vigilant following this latest burst of weather, and we continue our battle to get the power back on."
A detailed outage map and county-by-county breakdown is available at www.duke-energy.com/outage.
Duke Energy has about 300 employees, contractors and utility workers from neighboring regions on hand to help restore power throughout its Ohio and Kentucky service areas. An additional 265 resources will arrive tonight to supplement the restoration efforts.
The estimated time of restoration for all counties is 10 p.m. on Wednesday, though many customers will see power restored before then. Others may not see their power restored until Thursday if they need additional repairs made before Duke Energy can restore the power. This is due to the magnitude of this week's storms, wet ground conditions and the number of problematic customer outages.
"On behalf of Duke Energy, a big thank you to all of our customers for your continued patience during this very challenging week," said Fowler.
You can view an infographic on how Duke Energy restores power by going to http://www.duke-energy.com/pdfs/How-Duke-Energy-Restores-Power.pdf. An animated version is available here.
Safety is priority No. 1
While Duke Energy workers are focused on bringing customers back online, their No. 1 priority remains safety their personal safety, the safety of their teammates, and the safety of our customers and communities.
Duke Energy encourages all customers to stay safe around power lines. In addition, customers with standby generators should always follow safe practices. See our Standby Generator Safety page.
Additional electric safety information is available at http://www.duke-energy.com/safety/electric.asp.
About Duke Energy Ohio & Kentucky
Duke Energy Ohio/Kentucky's operations provide electric service to about 840,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in a 3,000-square-mile service area and natural gas service to approximately 500,000 customers.
Duke Energy is the largest electric power holding company in the United States with approximately $120 billion in total assets. Its regulated utility operations serve approximately 7.3 million electric customers located in six states in the Southeast and Midwest. Its commercial power and international energy business segments own and operate diverse power generation assets in North America and Latin America, including a growing portfolio of renewable energy assets in the United States.
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 250 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com.