GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — William Zema still can’t believe the strength of Saturday's storm.
“It took a lot of stuff out when it did this,” said Zema, “We had a piece of the pole right there on the garage.”
The storm took out his power for three days and ripped his home apart.
“Over on this side is stuff that’s already hanging off. And this whole side is basically done,” Zema said. “We have to pretty much replace the whole side of the house.”
His neighbor, James Richardson, is also without power and said his home is turning into an ice box.
"They said it could last up to Wednesday,” Richarson said. “Nothing I can do but freeze to death.”
Richardson moved his mom out for her health and safety.
“I had to take my mom to my niece's house and been putting on a lot of clothes and a lot of covers on the bed; candles and praying a lot,” Richardson added.
Residents in Garfield Heights are still waiting for their power to be restored, but some in Bedford Heights are starting to feel some relief.
Fallen trees took out John Urban’s power lines.
“My golf channel went out, so I came out to the back and looked around and I saw that tree laying on the wires,” Urban said.
His power turned back on this afternoon, but the storm’s aftermath isn’t ending there.
“I got to get my chainsaw out and start cleaning up the area and put it out front for the city to take care of it,” said Urban.
FirstEnergy said it’s working around the clock to get power restored. The Illuminating Company, the FirstEnergy distribution company that serves Northeast Ohio, hopes to restore service to about 7,500 customers and Ohio Edison, also a FirstEnergy company that serves Eastern and Central Ohio, is working to restore power to 21,000.
FirstEnergy hopes to have impacted customers back in service either Monday night or Tuesday, but for some, that’s not fast enough.
“We are pretty much at our wit's end already,” Zema said.
“Don’t forget us,” Richardson added.
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