Power outages, school closings as snow hits Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohioans dealt with widespread snow, power outages, school closings and delays to start the work week as a winter weather system churned through the state Monday.
The National Weather Service reported accumulations of 2 to 4 inches of snow in northern and central Ohio by Monday morning, while the southwest section of the state got 3 to 5 inches. Southeast counties saw mostly rain early Monday, but were reporting snow by midmorning.
The season’s first snowfall resulted in thousands of power outages in the Cincinnati area. The city set a snowfall record for the date when accumulations reached 3.2 inches by 7 a.m. Monday, topping the record of 3 inches for Nov. 17, set in 1920.
Duke Energy Ohio & Kentucky reported as many as 9,500 customers without service at one point Monday, and more than 7,000 without power during much of the morning. Spokeswoman Sally Thelen said tree limbs and vegetation coming into contact with power lines and vehicles hitting utility poles were causing outages on both sides of the Ohio River, with the most widespread in eastern Cincinnati neighborhoods.
Most of the area’s largest school districts, including Cincinnati Public Schools, closed because of concerns about road conditions and driving safety.
Ohio Department of Transportation Spokeswoman Melissa Ayers said more than 1,000 snow plows were working around the state Monday. She said drivers should be reminded to slow down and leave room for plows and other vehicles.
Kimberly Schwind, spokeswoman for the Ohio AAA in Columbus said call volume Monday was triple what the auto club normally sees during the morning commute. Crews were seeing more towing requests than usual as drivers re-learned how to navigate snowy roads, she said, and it was taking crews one to two hours to respond to calls.
“It is taking us a little bit longer to get to people, just because the roads are so backed up,” she said.
The NWS says 2 to 5 inches of snow is possible across many parts of the state before conditions improve as the system moves out Monday evening, when temperatures are expected to drop into the teens and single digits in parts of the state.
AP writer Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this report.