Business
FirstEnergy Crews Preparing for Strong Winds on Friday; Offers Customers Tips to Prepare and Stay Safe
With a severe windstorm expected to move through FirstEnergy's service area beginning early Friday and into early Saturday, the company is ready to respond to any outages and reminds customers to take steps now to stay safe in case of potential outages.
About this update from Firstenergy Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"AKRON, Ohio, March 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- With a severe windstorm expected to move through FirstEnergy's service area beginning early Friday and into early Saturday, the company is ready to respond to any outages and reminds customers to take steps now to stay safe in case of potential outages.","length":301,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"image","alt":"FirstEnergy Corp. Logo (PRNewsfoto/FirstEnergy Corp.)","displaySize":"","headline":null,"caption":"FirstEnergy Corp. Logo (PRNewsfoto/FirstEnergy Corp.)","className":"","disableSlideshowImg":false,"size":{"original":{"width":400,"height":156,"url":"https://media.zenfs.com/en/prnewswire.com/2a99b577b4d2ad4d6d7492945c9a5732"},"resized":{"url":"https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/bX6S.Xffy384KN5ZiA4dHg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTI3NTtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/prnewswire.com/2a99b577b4d2ad4d6d7492945c9a5732","width":400,"height":156}},"href":"https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/543843/FirstEnergy_Logo.html","hrefExternal":true,"rel":"nofollow"},{"type":"text","content":"FirstEnergy is closely monitoring expected winds that could bring down trees and blow branches and debris into power lines. Based on current forecasts, the strongest winds are expected Friday afternoon into early evening, with the most severe conditions impacting Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison in Ohio and West Penn Power and Penn Power in Pennsylvania, where winds could exceed 50-75 mph in some areas. Peak gusts ranging from 35-60 mph are also expected to impact Met‑Ed and Penelec in Pennsylvania, Mon Power and Potomac Edison in West Virginia and Maryland and Jersey Central Power & Light in New Jersey.","length":638,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"Strong winds can make it harder for crews to restore power and may slow restoration efforts. For safety reasons, crews cannot use bucket trucks when wind speeds are above 40 mph. Fallen trees and blocked roads can also delay crews as they travel to outage locations.","length":266,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"To help manage the weather safely and efficiently, we've activated our around-the-clock incident command structure so teams across our service area can coordinate restoration work, equipment needs and field support as conditions change.","length":240,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"We're also...