Crews from Ohio Edison and Penn Power continued to chip away at electrical outages on Friday that once numbered more than 50,000 following severe weather that rolled through the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys overnight.

By 7:00 p.m. Friday, the number of outages in Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana counties had been reduced to about 15,700. In Pennsylvania, about 1800 in Mercer and Lawrence counties are also currently without power. 

FirstEnergy says tree and flood-related damage across its service area is widespread, consisting of hundreds of broken poles and cross-arms, downed power lines, and fallen trees and debris blocking road access.

The utility says its efforts are focusing on the removal of any hazards and assessing the damage so that crews can access the site of an outage and begin to safely make the repairs.

In Columbiana County, FirstEnergy and AEP were still reporting 5,470 outages where over 17% of the county still have no power as of 7:00 pm. The hardest hit communities were in the Hanover area where more than half of the homes and businesses had no electricity.

As of 7:00 pm over 5% of Mahoning County has no power with a total of 6,078 outages reported and Trumbull County, over 5% of the county is out of power with a total of 4,182 outages reported.

Mercer County had 1,720 scattered outages. Lawrence County just had 117.

Because of the widespread and varied damage, FirstEnergy has issued a blanket estimate that most power will be restored by 11pm on Monday, August 28th. However, this is the expected latest time anyone affected should get their power back, and many will continue to get their power back throughout Friday evening and the weekend.

Some roads that are closed because of fallen power lines will remain shut down until FirstEnergy crews can get time to remove the live wires.

According to a statement from FirstEnergy, the utility has contractors assisting with restoration efforts and expects to utilize more resources throughout the day.

FirstEnergy expects some customers to be without power for several days.

The Leetonia Fire Department reported that Leetonia Road remained closed between Lodge Road and the south end of the Columbia Gas Brinker Gas Compressor station.

Firefighters posted a photo of downed electric lines in the grass at the compressor station.