June 1, 2022 Storm & Power Outage

On June 1, 2022, a storm packing 70 mph winds battered Hudson, taking down trees and causing massive power outages throughout the City. It was the worst storm with the most widespread damage seen in Hudson in 20 years.

The storm that moved through Hudson and Streetsboro had unofficial wind gusts between 60-70 mph based on National Weather Service reports. While no tornado warning was issued, the wind gusts equaled an EF-0 tornado (65-85 mph). The event was not classified a tornado because the winds were widespread and not concentrated in a narrow funnel associated with a typical tornado.

Following is a report on the City's emergency response to that unprecedented storm event. The document can be downloaded here.

The Storm

On June 1, 2022, the NWS issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch at 2:43 pm. Then multiple severe thunderstorm warnings were issued that afternoon at 4:22 pm. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued at 5:22 pm. Around 5:40-5:50 pm, wind gusts of 70 mph hit northern Summit County. A Destructive Storm Warning was issued at 5:43 pm with 80 mph winds. This warning was too late for Hudson residents to prepare; only Streetsboro benefited from the warning. The storms that moved through Hudson and Streetsboro unofficially had wind gusts between 60-70 mph briefly based on NWS storm reports. While no tornado warning was issued, the wind gusts equaled an EF-0 tornado (65-85 mph). This was not classified a tornado because the winds were widespread and not concentrated in a narrow funnel associated with a typical tornado. (Weather maps provided by Fox 8 Weather.)

At approximately 5:47 pm the first calls came in of damage from multiple trees down blocking multiple roads, trees on houses, power lines down, widespread power outages, and traffic signals out.

The Response

Communications

The communications team began putting out storm updates at about 7:30 pm on June 1, as reports from staff began to come in. Communications were posted on social media and through email distribution, as well as emergency alerts on the City’s website.
At 8:30 pm a CODE RED announcement was issued by the Interim City Manager regarding the power outage indicating residents may be out of power through the next day due to the massive number of electrical wires down.
Storm updates were sent out on social media, and the emergency alert banner on the City’s website was activated. Staff continued to post updates throughout the night of June 1 and continued through the next week. The communications team worked closely with Public Works to respond to continuous questions about power outages at residents’ individual locations and provided status updates regarding when various neighborhoods would have power restored. Updates continued through Friday.
The Interim City Manager provided updates approximately every two hours throughout the event which were also posted on our social media sites.
Staff posted 36 posts from June 1 through June 5, sent 115 comments/replies/messages, and received 504 comments/replies/messages. Storm coverage on social media generated 103,866 impressions and 18,150 engagements.
The City website received 20,938 unique page views, with the top pages visited being Report an Outage, Storm Updates, and Utilities.

Hudson Public Power

First alarm on our SCADA system went off at 5:41 pm June 1. At 7 pm, approximately 72% of Hudson Public Power (HPP) customers were without power (at least 5,149 of our 7,105 customers). This does not include people with outages that did not trip a feeder circuit, so the number could be higher. It also does not include First Energy customers in Hudson. No data is available from First Energy regarding number of Hudson residents without power.
HPP crews worked through the night. Crews began to re-energized circuits at 8:19 pm and continued restoration efforts as hazards were cleared and repairs were made. Multiple area electrical feeds were re-routed to isolate problem areas crews were working to restore power. The bulk of HPP customers were restored by 6:47 am on Thursday, June 2, with approximately 100 customers still without power. The remaining outages were addressed by managing the largest areas first and working through the list until we minimized the outages to single home issues.
On the morning of June 2, HPP received mutual aid from Westerville, Orrville, Wadsworth, Dover, and Cuyahoga Falls. All five mutual aid crews were here for one day and we retained Westerville for two additional days.
By Friday morning June 3, HPP had restored power to all customers except the Old Tannery area and a few isolated homes.
By 6 pm on Friday, June 3, 2022, only 12 homes were without power. The homes were individual service lines scattered throughout the system.
All power was restored by 11:30 pm Friday night to all properties within the Hudson Public Power service area.
HPP crews spent a total of 750 hours working to restore power, which could be closer to 900 hours if you count earned rest. In total, there were 19 HPP staff, 21 crew members from mutual aid, and 11 from Davey Tree working the event.
While the system was fully functional and services were restored, HPP continued to make minor repairs to the damaged system infrastructure, including pole damage and replacement over the course of several weeks.

Fire/EMS

The first Fire call came at 5:47 on June 1. and the last call cleared at 12:33 pm on June 2. A total of 23 HFD members responded to 77 storm-related calls. The types of incidents responded to included:

25 – Trees Down/Blocking Roads

22 – Wires Down or Arcing in Trees

5 – Fire Alarm Activations

5 – General Safety Check

4 – CO Alarm Activations

4 – Trees on a House

4 – Trees on Fire

4 – Grass Fires

1 – Trapped in Flooded Car

1 – Electrical Fire

1 – Gas Leak

1 – Utility Pole Fire

Police

Storm calls to Police began coming in at around 6 pm on June 1 and continued until 11 pm on June 2.
557 total phone calls into Hudson PD Dispatch Center (We had HPD officer helping with dispatch phone calls). A normal Wednesday usually averages 130 calls to dispatch, compared to the nearly 600 received on June 1.
- 437 came in on the non-emergency lines.
- 120 came in on the 9-1-1 lines. 30 of these calls rolled over to Bath PD Dispatch Center and those needing Police, Fire or EMS response were entered into the CAD system to be dispatched by Hudson PD dispatcher. We could not be happier with how this system worked. It demonstrates the value of having this virtual dispatch arrangement with another agency.
PD responded to approximately 60 calls for service, roughly 10 calls per hour. (traffic hazards, trees, and power lines down, accidents).
HPD continued to received non-storm related calls during this event (domestics, civil calls, a suicide call).

Public Works

Immediately, PW dispatched crews to help clear roads, put up traffic signs at intersections, and clean up the debris caused by the storm. The Service Department ran four separate crews that were continually dispatched to storm-impacted areas.
PW received more than 200 storm calls.
Crews worked into the night on June 1, and until 7:30 p.m. on June 2.
PW borrowed a knuckle boom truck from the City of Aurora to help with City cleanup and rented three chipper machines to help with residential debris removal the week following the storm.
On Friday, June 2, PW used The City of Stow’s street sweeper to help with cleanup. PW worked with our annual paving contractor to use their street sweeping machine for next several days.
On June 3, electronic message boards were placed along State Route 303 and 91 to inform residents of brush pickup dates.

Brush Pickup

Brush pickup began on Monday, June 6. As of June 15, the east side of Hudson were completed and crews are working on the remaining areas. The pick up was completed throughout the City in June.

Utility Billing

Utility Billing received 770 calls on Thursday. Regular calls began coming in on Friday, so it is difficult to isolate the storm-related calls that day.
- 330-342-1710: Utility Billing – approximately 308 calls
- 330-342-1715: CRC line – approximately 150 calls during business hours that Utility Billing answered on this line. 312 were answered by our CRC people during non-business hours on this line.
Utility Billing answered approximately 458 calls on Thursday, the day after the storm. 312 were answered by our after-hours CRC service.

Parks/Golf

Hudson Parks suffered tree loss, tree damage, and debris but no structural damage. All Hudson Parks had trees down, as well as Markillie, Draper, and O’Brien cemeteries. Parks, Golf and Cemetery staff worked together to manage the cleanup.
Staff cleared the Turnpike Trail, Bicentennial Trail, had Hudson Springs Trail navigable by the end of day on June 2. Cascade Trail still had downed trees but was navigable and the trees were removed June 3.
Ripley Tree arrived at 7 am on June 2 at Markillie Cemetery, which had many trees down. Roads were cleared and all safety issues addressed. Ripley returned Monday, as there was a burial both Friday and Saturday, for final cleanup and removal of materials. Most of the damage has been cleaned up, but the cleanup will continue until completed.
Other than minor debris to clear, there were no significant issues at Ellsworth Meadows.

Velocity Broadband

No VBB lines were directly impacted. Internet service remained intact throughout power outage.
135 customers were impacted because of the loss of power.
Investigation began immediately at 5:40 pm on June 1, identifying areas of concern. All critical systems cleanly transferred to battery or generator power.
As a precaution, the VBB Team re-routed a single critical fiber path due to tree damage with the potential to damage or break the fiber line.
Communications were sent to all customers as updates were received by HPP.
More than 1/3 of VBB customers were reconnected by 6:30 am. Power was restored to final VBB customers by 9:00pm Thursday, June 2.

Aftermath

The service department suspended all operations/programs and focused all resources on the tree and branch and debris removal in the City. Crews spent 3 weeks following the storm event removing debris from all neighborhoods throughout the city. Department Managers secured additional trucks and equipment to expedite the work. The Service Department has completed all storm related work and is now back to regular summer operations schedules. Hudson Public Power (HPP) responded to power outages within an hour of the storm passing through the City. HPP crews have been work since the storm to identify and repair any system components. They are currently in the Old Tannery Acres neighborhood replacing damaged poles.