On Friday evening a storm ripped through Ohio causing massive damage across the state.  AEP reported over 660,000 customers lost power and many in eastern Ohio remain without power today.  I was lucky enough to have my power remain but much of my region was not so lucky. Seeing the quandary facing his constituents, State Representative Andy Thompson (R-Marrietta) asked Ohio’s natural gas industry to help keep the lights on, and water pumping, and they did just that.

For its part, the storm caused massive damage, ripping siding from houses and destroying structures throughout my hometown of Cambridge.  As the storm passed and we were able to survey the damage, we found many downed power lines and trees uprooted from the ground.  The most unfortunate damage came as we drove past my church, or I should say my former church.  Once a beautiful A-frame structure is now reduced to a pile of rubble.

As many residents, and important community infrastructure remained without power,  Rep. Thompson came up with solutions.  Thompson knew that the burgeoning shale industry in Ohio used a lot of generators on their well sites and he reached out to industry to see if perhaps they could help. That is when he started making calls.

Rep. Thompson got a hold of Tom Stewart, Executive Vice President of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and EID Ohio’s Executive Director.  Tom, who is always more than happy to lend a helping hand, reached out to many of the operators throughout the state to see if they had extra generators for communities in need.

I talked with Jerry James who is with Artex Oil, Dave Hill who has his own company and also eventually talked with Tom Stewart of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.  And asked him if he thought this could be a possibility and he agreed to send out an email to some of their industry partners.  Fortunate enough to get a response from Anadarko and Anadarko said they thought they had a couple of generators that could be employed to help out some of the distressed communities. -Rep. Andy Thompson

Anadarko, a company doing exploration in Noble and Guernsey Counties, gladly lent a hand and provided an extra generator to the Belle Valley water pump station.

“We saw a need and wanted to help our neighbors recover from the recent storms.” Christina J. Ramirez of Anadarko

It was a much needed donation. Without the generator the residents of Belle Valley would not only be without power, also water for an undetermined period of time.  It goes without saying this is pretty important given temperatures have been in the high 90’s since the storm.

Although many remain without power and we are still picking up the debris from the latest storms, things are progressing.  Power is coming back on in various communities and plans for 4th of July celebrations continue.  Thankfully for the residents of eastern Ohio, we have companies like Anadarko looking to give a helping hand when they are needed the most.

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