Update: Large rural power outage restored

Update 2:45 p.m. Thursday The outage to the nearly 200 homes in rural Erie County appears to have been fixed. Read the update here. Original post BERLIN TWP. — Tuesday's strong storm tore down tree branches and power lines and left many in the region without power. And while most local power outages were quickly restored, about 200 homes in rural Erie County remain without power as of Wednesday evening and, worryingly for locals, might not have it back until the weekend. FirstEnergy's Ohio outage map states that 172 homes in a triangular-shaped area between Huron, Berlin Heights and Milan still don't have their lights on and might not for a while still; the map states people can expect power to be restored before 11 p.m. Saturday. Other smaller outages in the same area also indicate the same time frame for power restoration. One resident of that area who doesn't have power at their home pointed out that it's not just a lack of lights that's a problem. "For those that have wells, because the outage is in a rural area, not only do homes have no power but they have no water," the resident told the Register. "You need electricity to run the well pumps." Questions sent to a FirstEnergy spokesperson were not immediately answered. "Due to the complexity of the repairs, additional resources are required to safely restore power to your area," a message on the FirstEnergy outage map states. "They will be dispatched as quickly as possible." As of Wednesday evening, about 21,000 Ohio Edison customers were without power, according to the FirstEnergy. Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the amount of Ohio customers affected.