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BROOKFIELD -- Many local residents have been without power, some for a few days, the past two weekends following severe wind storms, so trustees are looking at having warming stations at the township administration building and in the future at the fire department hall.
Trustee Chairman Dan Suttles said at Monday's meeting two weekends of "wicked storms" had residents without power the weekend of March 25 and then again Saturday. Some residents at the meeting said their power was off for three days.
Fire Chief Dave Masirovits said the weekend of March 25 when the Mahoning Valley was hit by the first storm there were 46 local emergency runs and this past Saturday, there were 51 runs.
"We had close to 100 calls because of the weather the past two weekends," he said.
Suttles said fire and police personnel were out with power lines down and trees knocked over on roads.
"We ran out of road closed signs," Suttles said, noting the signs are needed to prevents motorists from traveling on roads where trees and electrical wires are down.
He said safety forces wanted to prevent people from being hurt or electrocuted.
Masirovits said national weather reports has predicted more severe weather today, with expected thunderstorms and strong damaging winds in many states including parts of Ohio, possibly in the 60 to 70 mph range, and also hail.
"Damaging winds are expected to be a real possibility. Today (Wednesday) is the day to watch," he said.
The National Weather Service in Cleveland is forecasting cloudy skies with a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms and a high near 80. Wind gusts as high as 30 mph are expected. In the evening will be additional rainfall with showers and thunderstorms.
Trustees opened the administration building during the day on Sunday as a warming center with 15 to 20 outlets available in the meeting room that people could use for recharging laptops, cellphones and other devices. He said two residents came to the administration building.
Suttles said he expects more severe weather in the summer with power outages likely to happen.
"We have to consider that with power outages, people are not just being inconvenienced but in danger if the weather gets cold," he said.
He said officials are looking at using American Rescue Plan funds for generators to turn the administration building and fire department banquet hall into warming centers. Suttles said they might also look at getting cots from the American Red Cross if people need a place to sleep at night.
Suttles said that is still being discussed as a possible option.
"We need to have a contingency plan in place because bad weather will happen again. These have been two major windstorms," he said.