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I can't imagine the aftermath of IKE in Texas. Here in southern Ohio we got strong winds courtesy of IKE, with gusts reaching 70 miles per hour or more and it tore up jack.
Thankfully Miami University's Georgian arcitecture dictates that buildings be masonry and that the roofs are 9/12 pitch. No buildings on campus suffered any damage.
The same can not be said for the 10,000 trees on campus. Over 10 percent of them are destroyed and will have to be cut down. A 108 year old Cyprus that stood 50 foot tall split in half yesterday during a 70 mph gust and slammed into our dorm, causing it to splinter into a million pieces.
Southern Ohio is currently without any power, the Metro Cincy area has 600,000 customers without power. Dayton area has 600,000 without power and Columbus has 300,000 without power in Franklin county alone.
We were without power last night for about 6 hours. It is back on now, sort of.
Duke, DP & L and AEP are telling us that it may be days before power is restored because they sent their repair crews to Texas in anticipation of IKE. Now they are being recalled and we must wait. Luckily Miami has two 16 cylinder diesel generators capable of powering all essential campus services, dorms, dining halls, the student union and the main library. (Internet and Street lights are considered essential here I guess). We are on aux power as of now. Since Duke can not supply us power, all academic buildings are dark and all classes are canceled. If Duke can't get the power back on by 5 today, they'll probably cancel classes tomorrow.
To everyone who has no power, stay safe. Be careful when using candles and the like and consider any downed power lines to be energized and anything touching them to be energized as well.
-the99contour