Uninsured residents with storm damage sought

Office of Home­land Secu­rity and Emer­gency Man­age­ment Direc­tor Joe Edwards is request­ing any­one who expe­ri­enced storm dam­age to their home (not out-buildings or barns, only liv­able dwellings) that is not or was not insured dur­ing the June 29 wind storm, please con­tact Mor­row County Emer­gency Man­age­ment at 419–947‑4041 so that they may get a dam­age assess­ment of your residence.

AEP Ohio is remind­ing res­i­dents your home must be ready to accept restored ser­vice, that is, your facil­i­ties ‘must be in safe work­ing con­di­tion before restora­tion can be completed.’

As AEP Ohio con­tin­ues to restore elec­tric ser­vice to the more than 660,000 cus­tomers who were left with­out elec­tric­ity by Friday’s wind­storm, com­pany offi­cials are remind­ing cus­tomers that some repairs to the cus­tomers’ premises can­not be per­formed by AEP Ohio employees.

In instances where the storm has dam­aged customer’s wiring or equip­ment, the cus­tomer needs to con­tact a qual­i­fied elec­tri­cian to ensure that their home can accept AEP Ohio’s ser­vice when crews arrive to make repairs.

In an over­head elec­tric sys­tem, the con­nec­tion between AEP Ohio and the cus­tomer is made at the weath­er­head. The weath­er­head is attached atop the metal con­duit (pipe) or cable that rises from the meter box and typ­i­cally con­tin­ues above the roof’s edge for a cou­ple of feet or so to pro­vide safe clear­ance. With under­ground ser­vice, the customer’s respon­si­bil­ity starts at the meter box. The weath­er­head, riser pipe and meter box, together, com­prise the “elec­tric ser­vice entrance.” The prop­erty owner owns the elec­tric ser­vice entrance, and the wiring inside it, as well as the breaker or fuse box on the inside.

“AEP Ohio is respon­si­ble for the facil­i­ties and equip­ment up to the ser­vice entrance,” said Pablo Vegas, AEP Ohio’s pres­i­dent and chief oper­at­ing offi­cer. “We are not autho­rized to make repairs to the weath­er­head or meter base if they are dam­aged. So we’re urg­ing cus­tomers to make arrange­ments for any nec­es­sary repairs to their facil­i­ties to avoid any addi­tional delays in get­ting their ser­vice restored.” Vegas noted that in all instances, the cus­tomer is respon­si­ble for the structure’s elec­tri­cal wiring. The elec­tric meter itself is AEP Ohio’s property.

If the ser­vice entrance is dam­aged or pulled away from the house, cus­tomers will need to call an elec­tri­cian to have repairs made before elec­tric ser­vice can be restored by AEP Ohio employ­ees. In an effort to speed restora­tion efforts, some local munic­i­pal­i­ties will not require an inspec­tion by local offi­cials prior to ser­vice restoration.

For more infor­ma­tion regard­ing cus­tomer respon­si­bil­ity for dam­ages to their homes’ elec­tric ser­vice drop, view the Out­ages & Prob­lems sec­tion of AEPOhio.com or click this link:

AEPOhio.com/outages/faq/DamageToYourHomeOrBusiness.aspx

AEP Ohio appre­ci­ates its cus­tomers’ under­stand­ing and patience as the repair crews con­tinue their restora­tion work through­out the State of Ohio.

Please visit us at www.aepohio.com/info/community/communityAffairs.

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Jul 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.