PERRYSBURG, Ohio — As the snow winded down and the rain was moving in Friday evening, WTOL 11 spoke with people at Walt Churchill's Market in Perrysburg. Some were stocking up for the weekend, with frigid temperatures and an ALERT DAY for Saturday.
But others, like Hannah Renollet, weren't too worried about the weather.
"I'm not really worried about losing power here in town at all," Renollet said.
She lives in Perrysburg but grew up in the country and is no stranger to power outages. Her mom still lives out in Pemberville, though, and was doing more preparations for a potential outage.
"She was getting ready for this weekend by getting the generator out and making sure it was running, good to go," Renollet said.
Jim Schneider with Schneider Sons' Electric Corp. (also known as "The Generator Guys") recommends people with generators give them a precautionary check. With the wind and low temperatures coming, he's preparing to get an influx of calls.
"People will be calling because they'll be losing power over the weekend, the ice building up on the wires and things like that, so we'll get a lot of calls probably over the weekend and Monday," Schneider said.
But he's backed up for a month and recommends those without a generator to get a portable one or speak with your neighbor.
"The next best thing to having a generator is a neighbor with a generator," Schneider said. "My neighbor, when he loses power, comes to my house and hooks up to my power."
If your power does go out, companies like FirstEnergy are preparing to get it back up as soon as possible.
"We are increasing our staffing levels and securing additional resources to come in to assist our crews with any outages that could occur," FirstEnergy spokesperson Lauren Siburkis said.
Renollet said her power has been restored pretty quickly in the past, so she won't be getting a generator any time soon.
"I think the longest we had was like a half-hour," she said. "It was very nice to get that back on quickly."
FirstEnergy recommends reporting a power outage as soon as possible. Customers can report an outage online by clicking here or by calling 800-477-5050.
Power outages for those whose electricity is serviced by Consumers Energy can be reported online by clicking here. To report an outage by phone, you can reach Consumer Energy's automated system or a customer service representative at 800-477-5050.