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Most Columbiana residents have power

EAST PALESTINE — Two days after winter storms first hit the area, most Columbiana County residents have their power back, while the small few remaining are expected to be fully restored today.

The outage followed an ice storm Thursday night and two inches of snow that fell the following day, causing more than 40,000 residents to lose power Friday, with many of those seeing their power restored as the day progressed.

According to FirstEnergy, as of 8 p.m. Saturday, fewer than 630 customers in the county remained without power, and the company estimated that power should be fully restored by 11:30 p.m. today.

East Palestine and Unity Township were among the most affected by the storms, with the majority of the town in the dark, leading police and fire officials to set up shelters throughout town for those who needed to stay warm, with the Clark Avenue fire station used as one location.

Village manager Pete Monteleone said that officials — along with all of the city’s emergency forces — had worked on Friday with officials with the Columbiana County Emergency Management Agency (CCEMA) and the American Red Cross to set up the shelters.

“I had coordinated with my police chief and fire chief, and we worked really hard, and I’m proud of how they did here in East Palestine,” Monteleone said. “The fire chief and the police chief both coordinated with the EMA and with Peggy Clark (CCEMA director), they worked really hard getting places evacuated, like the Christian house, some of the facilities that were nursing homes and made sure they were fine.”

Monteleone added that some residents did stay at the shelters, stating “they said that it was probably about, maybe, a little over 10 people that had come and utilized that, which is good. That’s why they (the shelters) were there.”

Monteleone said on Friday the village declared a state of emergency, but he added that with power being restored in a quick manner, most of the shelters were either closed or went on stand-by mode. Only a handful were still without power by 6 p.m. Saturday.

“The EMA kept that up and made that service available, but downstaffed it a little bit,” Monteleone said.

Monteleone said that the majority of the calls throughout the day Saturday were in relation to heaters and furnaces experiencing problems.

New Waterford, Negley, Highlandtown and West Point’s fire stations were also utilized as warming shelters throughout the day Friday, along with other area churches that also used their facilities as shelters through the help of the American Red Cross.

Rappach is a reporter for the (Lisbon) Morning Journal.

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