Power has been restored to more than one thousands homes in Akron after and early morning accident at the intersection of Clifton and East Cuyahoga Falls Avenue.

Newschannel 5 reports that a women with a medical condition hit the pole, she was taken to the hospital and her condition is unknown at this time.

The accident closed East Cuyahoga Falls Avenue between Riverside Drive and Clifton Avenue.

On the web at NewsNet5.com.

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Earlier Coverage

Akron Police are asking drivers to avoid E.Cuyahoga Falls Avenue around Riverside and Clifton in North Hill; crews are still working on that downed utility pole after a car crash took it down around three Thursday morning.

Power has been restored in the area.

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Earlier Coverage

More than 15-hundreds homes and businesses were without power this morning in Akron and Cuyahoga Falls after a car hit a utility pole.

The crash happened just before 3AM on Cuyahoga Falls Avenue, near Clifton Avenue.

FirstEnergy says the accident affected transformers in the area, and about 800 homes were immediately restored with electricity.

It's still not clear whether the outages were a direct result of the accident.

More information will come as soon as it's available
 

It's been a windy weekend in Northeast Ohio, but the Akron/Canton area has mostly been spared major power outages.

FirstEnergy's outage maps show less than a few dozen customers were still without power as of Sunday afternoon, with Ravenna the most affected area.

Winds, cold and snow are expected over the next few days, and that could bring more outages.

The snowbelt areas along the lake east of Cleveland have a Winter Storm Watch in effect from Monday through Wednesday morning.

As of yet, there are no winter weather warnings or advisories for the Akron/Canton area, though frigid temperatures and below zero windchills and -some- snow are in the forecast for all of Northeast Ohio.

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On the Web: FirstEnergy, www.firstenergycorp.com

                      National Weather Service, www. weather.gov

There's now a price tag attached to the new name for the Cleveland Browns' stadium.

The Beacon Journal reports that Akron-based FirstEnergy is paying 102 million dollars over 17 years to name FirstEnergy Stadium, Home of the Cleveland Browns. That's 6 million dollars per year.

The team and the local utility company announced the new name on Tuesday.

FirstEnergy earlier told the newspaper that the naming rights deal would last until the year 2029, the end of the team's current lease deal with the city of Cleveland.

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On the Web: Akron Beacon Journal, www.ohio.com

FirstEnergy is once again trying to juice up kids learning math and science.

The Akron-based power company is offering education grants of up to $500 for creative "STEM" classroom projects - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

FirstEnergy spokesperson Patti Michel says that it pays off for both the power company and students in the future.

"Really, these students who benefit from these programs could become FirstEnergy's future engineers, scientists, accountants and electricians," Michel tells AkronNewsNow. "So, we really want to encourage development and learning in these areas."

The STEM grant deadline is September 17, 2012...and grants will be awarded on October 8th based on recommendations from the FirstEnergy Education Advisory Council.

FirstEnergy has been giving students such grants since 1986.

Details on the grant program can be found on FirstEnergy's website.

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On the Web: FirstEnergy, www.firstenergy.com

Another toasty dose of temperatures means the high heat could also trigger severe storms.

The National Weather Service has issued a Heat Advisory for Thursday from 12 p.m. until 7 p.m.

Long exposure to the warm temperatures could cause heat exhaustion or heat stroke, especially for those who are young or elderly.

FirstEnergy Spokesman Mark Durbin says all of its 10 utilities are on "high alert" and prepared to respond and repair any possible electrical damage that may occur.

Forecasters predict winds gusting as high as 60 miles per hour in some regions as a storm system moves through.

Click here to check on current outages in the Northeast Ohio region.

Follow AkronNewsNow.com for the latest weather related updates.

Akron-based FirstEnergy says it's making progress getting the lights and fans back on to customers still without power since last Friday's windstorms lashed a wide swath from southern Ohio to the Maryland shore.

The utility even says it's using helicopters to survey and help assess damages to key transmission lines in West Virginia, with more than five-housand employees dedicated to the effort to restore service. FirstEnergy reports as of Monday afternoon it had restored power to 350-thousand out of the 566-thousand customers in Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The hardest hit area, according to FirstEnergy, was in West Virginia where nearly 160,000 customers were still waiting for the electricity to come back on. The terrain has proven to pose significant challenges to getting power restored faster, says the utility.

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FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) utilities have restored service to more than 350,000 of the 566,000 customers in West Virginia, Maryland, western Pennsylvania and central Ohio that were affected by the storm that hit the region on Friday night.

In West Virginia, helicopters are being used to assist in the restoration of 67 transmission lines 69-kilovolt and above that were damaged as a result of the storm. As repairs are made to the damaged portions of the transmission system in West Virginia, the company expects thousands of additional customers to be back in service over the next several days.

More than 5,100 linemen, hazard responders, forestry workers, call center representatives, management and support personnel are currently working around the clock to restore service to affected customers. The workforce includes approximately 4,000 from all 10 FirstEnergy utilities and support groups, and 1,100 from contractors and other utility companies. Additional resources are expected as they become available.

“As a result of the significant damage from the storm, we are in the process of rebuilding sections of our transmission system in West Virginia, which ultimately will help us restore a larger number of customers without power,” said Steve Strah, vice president, Utility Operations, FirstEnergy Utilities. “Using helicopters to patrol the lines and assess the damage – particularly in remote mountainous areas – has helped pinpoint problem locations and focus our restoration efforts.”

As of noon Monday, estimated customer outage restoration times are as follows:

• .Mon Power: West Virginia was the hardest-hit area. Approximately 159,000 customers remain without power. The company estimates that the majority of affected customers in the Morgantown area will be restored around midnight Tuesday. Estimated restoration times for other locations will be later this week.
• Potomac Edison: Approximately 10,000 customers in Maryland and 28,000 in West Virginia remain without power. Due to the severity of the damage, the remaining customers in West Virginia will be restored later this week. The majority of the remaining Maryland customers will be restored by late Tuesday and Wednesday. However, some small pockets and individual customers in the hardest-hit areas in Allegany County will be restored by Thursday.
• Ohio Edison: Approximately 8,000 customers remain without power. Affected customers in the Marion area will be restored by Tuesday evening, with customers in the hardest-hit area of Springfield restored by Wednesday evening.
• West Penn Power: Less than 1,500 customers remain without power. The majority will be restored by midnight tonight, with a few isolated customers restored tomorrow.

FirstEnergy crews and contractors are utilizing the company’s restoration process, which is designed to restore power safely and efficiently:

• First, crews focus on securing hazardous situations such as downed wires to protect public safety.
• Priority also is given to transmission lines, hospitals, communications facilities, emergency response agencies and substation facilities that supply power for local  distribution systems.
• Repairs are then made to circuits serving the largest number of customers, followed by restoration of service to individual homes.

As debris from the storm continues to be cleared, customers are cautioned never to touch downed lines. Customers should always assume downed wires are carrying electricity and are reminded to keep their children and pets away from downed wires. Downed wires should be reported immediately to your electric company or local police or fire department. Customers should never try to remove trees or limbs from power lines because they could conduct electricity; instead, wait for emergency services or utility crews to arrive.

For up-to-date information on the company's restoration effort, current outages, FirstEnergy’s storm restoration process and tips for staying safe, go to www.firstenergycorp.com and during significant service interruptions, outage information is also available via the company’s Twitter accounts.

A list of all accounts is available here: www.firstenergycorp.com/newsroom/social_media. In addition, customers can view timely, accurate and easy-to-use outage information through FirstEnergy’s “24/7 Power Center” maps, accessible on desktops, smart phones and mobile devices at www.firstenergycorp.com/outages.

Mon Power serves 500,000 customers in 47 West Virginia counties; Potomac Edison serves approximately 250,000 customers in seven Maryland counties and 135,000 customers in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia; West Penn Power serves 715,000 customers in 21 Pennsylvania counties; and Ohio Edison serves more 1 million customers in Ohio.

If an open house held in Macedonia Thursday evening is any indication, FirstEnergy won't have much of a fight re-stringing high-powered lines from Western Pennsylvania more than a hundred miles west into Northeast Ohio.

About two dozen people attended the event in the cafeteria of Nordonia High School. It was one of the more well-attended opportunities for the public and local government officials to offer comments on the plan.

The utility plans to spend millions over the next two and a half years to rebuild, including parts of Portage and Summit Counties before terminating in Glenwillow just north of the Summit-Cuyahoga border. In addition to stringing new power line using 70% of it's existing inventory of towers, the power company expects to use existing rights-of-way that would minimize impact on the public, said company spokesman Todd Schneider. He also said planning is underway on a new substation that would serve northeast Ohio as coal-fired electric plants along the Lake Erie shoreline are closed.

Schneider says the rewiring is important to assure continued reliability of the utility's electric grid. That's the backbone of the electric distribution system that allows utilities to move power from region to region to serve and meet demand.

FirstEnergy Grid Upgrade by Akron NewsNow

State regulators need to approve the plan; it's part of FirstEnergy's power grid upgrades planned that would cost almost a billion dollars over the next five years across the utility's footprint extending from Ohio to New Jersey. 

More from PowerTechnology.com

FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin says power was restored to all customers as of 4pm Friday afternoon.

Previous story

FirstEnergy crews are working to repair problems at a substation this afternoon that knocked power out to 20,000 customers across the city of Akron between 12 and 1:30 this afternoon . FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin says as of 1:30 power had been restored to all by 6,000 customers. He says 4,000 customers in the Thornton Street area may not see their power restored until around 5 this afternoon as crews work to make repairs to the substation.

The scattered outages also caused traffic lights to go dark at several intersections. If you approach an intersection without working traffic lights treat it as a four-way stop.

The All-American Soap Box Derby has a new sponsor.

It's FirstEnergy, announcing today in a news conference at Derby Downs a three year commitment as title sponsor of the All-American Soap Box Derby.

It's not as if the Akron-based company is new to the derby.  It routinely sponsors cars and provides other financial assistance, but this is the break actor/director Corbin Bernsen was hoping for when he wrote derby-based movie 25 Hill.

"That was to create some energy - no pun intended - around the derby to find a sponsor," said Bernsen.

FirstEnergy President & CEO Tony Alexander says it's a perfect fit.

"It speaks to the inner child in all of us," said Alexander.  "And maybe more important, it helps young people learn the basics of design and engineering - as well as experience the joys of good, old-fashioned teamwork and competition.

Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic says he hopes other companies follow FirstEnergy's lead.

"If you have your life savings or company savings invested here, you have an interest in this community being successful, so I encourage all of you to use this as an example - a nice warm and fuzzy thing to do, but a good sound investment," said Plusquellic.

Plusquellic also explained the the success of the derby and the community's willingness to partner with the 75-year old tradition combine to help brand the city, making it easier to attract companies - and the jobs that come with them - from anywhere in the world.

Akron-based FirstEnergy says it was the lack of an exterior weatherproof coating on the building housing it's reactors at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant that led to cracks in the concrete structure.

The utility reporting the finding in a "root cause" report delivered to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released today. FirstEnergy says the weatherproof coating could have had an impact on the concrete Shield Building, especially in controlling moisture dating back to a blizzard in January 1978 that eventually caused cracking because of freeze and thaw cycles.

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), the company that operates the nuclear power operations for the utility, says it will take steps to analyze and monitor for cracks while applying a weatherproof sealant.

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(FirstEnergy Corporation) FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) announced today that it has completed its Root Cause Analysis Report regarding the cause of the tight cracks identified in portions of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station Shield Building (photo, left, courtesty FENOC) during its fall 2011 reactor head replacement outage. The report has been submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

This extensive evaluation supports earlier analysis that concludes the structural integrity of the Shield Building remains intact, and the building is able to perform its safety function. FENOC’s comprehensive 119-page root cause report indicates that absence of an exterior weatherproof coating on the Shield Building allowed moisture associated with the blizzard of January 1978 to migrate into the concrete, freeze and expand, causing tight, subsurface cracks in portions of the building.

The root cause report concludes that the cracking occurred following the blizzard’s combination of extreme weather conditions, which included three days of driving rain preceding a drastic temperature drop to around 0-degrees Fahrenheit and intense winds throughout the storm. A team of industry-recognized structural concrete and causal analysis experts assisted Davis-Besse personnel with the comprehensive root cause investigation.

The root cause report outlines a number of actions that will be taken by FENOC, including applying a weatherproof coating to protect the Shield Building’s exterior walls, performing additional inspections to verify the cracks have not spread and developing a long-term building monitoring plan.

In the course of the root cause investigation, an exhaustive list of potential cracking causes was examined, including possible design, construction, environmental and operational issues. Thorough testing and analysis of numerous concrete samples conducted in support of the root cause demonstrated that the concrete in the Shield Building is sound and in good condition.

Davis-Besse is part of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), which also operates the Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, and the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio.