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Madison officials outline storm response: poles, transformers and mutual aid restored power within days
Summary
Acting mayor and department leaders described damage from the July 3 storm—13 broken poles, four damaged transformers and about 50 homes with service lines ripped off—and credited Madison Electric, DPW and mutual-aid crews for restoring power by July 6; the borough logged more than 581 extra staff hours.
Acting Mayor (speaker 1) opened the meeting with a detailed account of the July 3 severe storm and the borough’s response. He said the storm produced widespread downed trees, snapped power lines and multiple damaged homes; Madison Electric reported 13 broken utility poles, four damaged transformers and about 50 homes whose individual electric services were ripped from their houses.
The acting mayor said Madison Electric, with mutual-aid crews from Butler Electric and Accurate Electric, worked through the holiday weekend and restored power to all customers by 6:30 p.m. on July 6 except where individual household wiring required repair. He credited police, fire, EMS and public-works staff for coordinating response and recovery and said borough employees logged more than 581 hours outside their regular schedules during the response.
Councilman Haralyn Putis and other staff described ongoing cleanup: DPW crews completed curbside collection of large storm debris, identified 28 additional sites needing tree or electrical work, and completed road and sidewalk repairs in some locations; Shady Lawn Drive reconstruction finished the morning of the meeting, and other milling and paving work is anticipated by the end of the month.
Councilman Range (electric utility) recounted a series of utility callouts in late June and early July, including several transformer and substation alarms. Several outages before and during the storm were attributed to wildlife contacts (squirrels) causing equipment trips, he said. The borough is completing preliminary damage assessments with Marks County Office of Emergency Management to position itself for state or federal assistance if eligible.
Officials encouraged residents to register for Alert Madison for restoration and safety updates and to use the pool and other cooling centers during outages. Acting Mayor praised staff for the rapid, coordinated recovery effort.
