(Editor’s Note: The following open message has been forwarded from Tom Wheeler, general manager of Cleveland Utilities, to utility employees and Cleveland government leaders in an attempt to help answer questions from customers about when to expect the restoration of electrical service to their neighborhoods).

To ALL:

I appreciate the effort everyone is making to deal with our customers and help restore power to everyone.

We are now getting considerable calls from people who want to know when the power will return.

The best answer we can give at this time is that if your power has not been restored as of now, they need to be thinking in terms of days instead of hours as to when it will be returned to normal. Hopefully this information will help them to decide about getting a motel room and taking food from their freezers to someone else.

The electric system has sustained damage that is unprecedented in our system’s history. Electric lines that took months to construct are now laying flat on the ground. It will take a massive effort to get these lines back in service in just a few days. I have attached a few pictures of some of the damage along Durkee Road.

We have 4 line crews coming to us from Florida, one from Harriman TN, and we are trying to get two more from Florida and three from Kentucky.

We ask all of our customers to bear with us as we work to get the system back to normal.

Tom Wheeler, General Manager, Cleveland Utilities