(WTRF)–Across Ohio and Marshall County, thousands of residents are without power.
Countless businesses have shut down operations for the day with no clear answer on how long they will be stuck without power.
Joelle Moray, external affairs manager for AEP says there is an estimated 16,000 customers in Marshall and Ohio County without electricity.
Moray says this is an ‘all hands on deck kind of situation.’
“The way that power gets restored is, it gets restored to the critical infrastructure first. So for example, hospitals, water pump stations that allow you to have functioning water in your home, things like that that are city structures. Or things like hospitals, fire departments, police departments, etc. Those are the places that get restored first.”
Joelle Moray, external affairs manager for AEP
Once those are taken care of she says they move to restore the area with the most residents without power.
She says to make sure lights and fans are switched off and if you have a generator only connect it to essential items like your refrigerator.
Moray says safety should be your number one priority.
Stay away from fallen trees and powerlines and always assume everything is energized.
She says they have no current estimate of when power will be restored by hundreds of additional crews who are on their way to assist with the damage.