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Scattered damage in Washington County after storm

MARIETTA — In a whirlwind of less than 20 minutes power went down across half of Marietta Thursday afternoon.

The outage was due to two downed trees, one on Colegate Drive between Hadley Lane and Washington State Community College, and the other in front of the Masonic Temple on Front Street. Both came crashing down just after 4 p.m.

Though no injuries occurred as a result of the storm, one Marietta resident lost his truck to a maple tree; two Belpre residents were happy to have been on the right side of the road so as not to be crushed.

“I had just moved my truck there maybe 20 minutes prior,” said Lee Peterson, 68, of Marietta. “I’m thankful that there’s somebody looking out for me above. I wouldn’t be here today if I had been in there.”

Peterson’s 2000 XLT Ford Ranger was crushed beneath the tree, which had also pulled down a live wire and AEP pole from the edge of Muskingum Park.

“We were driving on the other side of the road headed away from downtown,” said Teresa Sizemore, 55, of Belpre.

“I didn’t even hear anything until all of a sudden the sunroof shattered above us and then my front windshield fractured too.”

Sizemore was on her way home from work with Tom Sizemore, 57, of Belpre in the passenger side of the vehicle. Matthew Kale, 27, of Marietta, had been driving just ahead of the pair and said he rushed over to help the Sizemores out of their 2016 Hyundai Elantra.

“I went to get the people out of their car first, then was just happy that my car still started even though it was hit by the live power line,” said Kale.

By 4:50 p.m. AEP electricians arrived on scene to cut the wire and allow for city crews to remove the tree from Peterson’s truck an hour later.  Power was restored to some businesses downtown by 6:30 p.m. and Front Street was cleared by 7:15 p.m.

Meanwhile the tree downed on Colegate Drive posed a greater threat to traffic in the surrounding area because of 10 downed power line arms stretching across the road.

When the AEP electricians left Front Street, they moved on to work at Colegate Drive with a prediction of power being restored for the majority of Marietta by 6 a.m. today.

However rerouting of electricity did not go as planned, according to Marietta City Safety-Service Director Jonathan Hupp, and further blackouts occurred across the city. AEP sent out a text to some of its customers informing them that power may not be restored until 3:30 p.m. today.

Marietta Police Capt. Aaron Nedeff confirmed Thursday after 9 p.m. that their 911 call system had been affected by the outage and temporarily rerouted to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office while generators were fixed and the phone system brought back online. Parts of Devola were also affected by the Marietta outage.

Nedeff also reported three vehicular accidents resulting from traffic lights without power across the city.

“Please remember that when approaching a nonfunctioning light, the intersection becomes a four-way stop,” he said.

Bernita Friemann, owner of Whit’s Frozen Custard located on Second Street, said she was thankful for the quick response time of city police and crews.

“I was in Parkersburg at my Point Park Marketplace location when I got a call that my Marietta shop had no power,” she said. “When I got into town at about 4:30 p.m. and saw the tree down on Front Street I called AEP to make sure it had been reported. I was worried about losing my product, which needs the cold fridge and freezer to survive.”

Friemann said AEP told her their only notification of the Front Street incident had referred to a blown transformer, not a downed power line and pole.

“So as I was at Lowe’s buying a back up generator, I was calling around to local businesses trying to find somewhere I could take my mix and custard,” she said. “The Shrine Club generously offered their coolers for me and I was on my way back to the shop when the power came back on.”

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