How AES Ohio, local school districts prepare for severe weather

MIAMI VALLEY — AES Ohio has dozens of crews out all across the Miami Valley and is urging people to get ready to be in their safe space with severe storms possible this evening.

>> LIVE UPDATES: Severe storms with large hail, tornadoes possible today

As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, some schools decided their safest step would be sending students home early.

Troy Christian Schools decided to dismiss early, a tough spot for some parents.

“Well, I had to get off work to get here, an hour and a half is not a lot of notice,” said Deena Gates.

Gates had to leave her job at Wright Patterson Air Force Base to scramble and pick up her 4th grader. Dozens of other parents were in that same scramble mode.

“Hopefully nothing happens, safety for the kids is best,” Gates said.

Mary Ann Kabel with AES Ohio said preparation is key in planning for and surviving storms. She urges families to have emergency kits. Her company is following its emergency plans.

“We have 45 line crews and 69 tree crews,” Kabel said.

Kabel said the most common cause of outages are trees or branches falling on power lines.

She said crews have a three-step restoration process, de-energize the line, remove the trees and make repairs, then re-energize the lines.

AES crews have a tough job they need to concentrate on.

“Our people are doing a very dangerous work, it’s not the time to ask them a question about when they will have the power restored,” Kabel said.

AES is planning for everything from high winds and hail to tornadoes.

To view outages or see how long the estimated restoration time for the repair is, you can visit the AES Ohio website here.

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