June 14, 2022
More than 146,000 American Electric Power customers were without power Tuesday afternoon in scattered outages, including more than 60,000 in the Columbus area, according to the AEP outage map.
Among the areas affected are Downtown, including the Rhodes State Office Tower, parts of the University District, Easton area, Clintonville and Marion Village were all affected as of 2:20 p.m.
The cause of the widespread outages was not immediately clear and AEP media representatives could not be reached despite several attempts. High temperatures in the lower 90s Tuesday afternoon has placed a heavy demand on the electric grid from air conditioners and other appliances.
Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Geitter said the division has received dozens of reports of fire alarms and elevator rescues across the city, likely due to the outages.
Columbus Police Sgt. Joe Albert said no major traffic issues have arisen from the outages.
A doctor at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital posted on social media that the hospital was without power except for backup generators in critical areas.
