COLUMBUS, Ohio — No power. No van to transport seniors to cooling centers. No phone service.
Those are the living conditions for dozens of seniors living in the Livingston Senior Apartments in east Columbus.
People baking inside a building with no backup power supply, where management has no way to know if their residents are in trouble because none of the phones work.
Management is now going door to door hoping they answer back.
"If they do not answer the door then we are talking to other residents have you seen so and so," says Jennifer Jordan, Executive Director of Gertrude Wood Community Foundation.
On the hottest day of the year, these medically fragile residents are struggling to keep cool.
A resident told 10TV that one man who relies on oxygen hopped on a COTA bus and planned to ride it as long as he can just to stay cool before having to return to his room.
State Representative Latyna Humphrey who represents this area, bought water sports drinks and dropped them off at Driving Park Recreation Center and the Livingston Avenue Senior Apartments.
"This is unacceptable. People of the south side are bed ridden and need help who need oxygen, this is not helpful during a heat wave we have heat waves every summer, we have summer storms every summer, and so we need to be prepared for these things like this making sure we are investing in the power grid. This is not going to work," she said.
AEP shut off the power without notice to customers in portions of the city she represents when transmission lines went down during a storm Monday night.
"You need to call people send text messages like they do when we don't pay our bills. They can do that, there is going to be an intentional power outage get to safety that is the important thing to do," she said.
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission which regulates utilities sent 10TV the following statement:
"The PUCO is monitoring the situation and in constant contact with AEP Ohio, other electric utilities and the regional transmission grid operator, PJM. As a regulator, PUCO monitors system-wide reliability and as with any major outage, we will be communicating with Ohio’s utilities to do an after-action review and determine what steps, if any, can be taken to avoid future occurrences. Utilities are expected to work the PJM, the regional grid operator that acts as the “air traffic controller” for the grid to ensure system reliability."