BATAVIA, Ohio — Power outages across the Batavia area have fallen from roughly 27,000 customers Wednesday morning to about 11,000 as of early Thursday, the Village of Batavia said, as crews continue restoring electricity knocked out by this week’s storms.
Duke Energy’s outage map showed the drop in customers without power across eastern Hamilton and Clermont counties, the village said in a Facebook post. The utility restores service by circuit, and the count has moved down every hour since the storm cleared, according to the village.
The village is keeping the Armory, its municipal building on Main Street in Batavia, open Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for residents without power who want to cool off or charge devices. Batavia, the Clermont County seat, is home to the county courthouse and administration building in addition to village offices. The village said hours may be extended or adjusted as conditions change, with updates to follow on its Facebook page.
The village urged residents to treat any downed line as live, stay away from it and call 911 to report it rather than approaching it. Where traffic signals are dark because of the outage, including along Main Street and at the state Route 32 ramps, drivers should treat the intersection as a four-way stop and slow down, the village said.
Residents who are still without power should report the outage directly to Duke Energy rather than assume a neighbor already has, the village said, since individual reports help crews pinpoint where a circuit has failed. Duke Energy’s outage map is available at duke-energy.com/outages.
Village Public Works crews are clearing limbs and debris from Batavia streets, and residents can call the village office if a tree or limb is blocking a village road, according to the post.
The village also asked residents to check on neighbors who may be struggling with the extended outage but are less likely to ask for help, including older residents living alone, people who rely on medical equipment and families with newborns.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Village of Batavia.