Thousands without gas in South Toledo - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

Thousands without gas in South Toledo

More than 1,100 South Toledo residents are without gas tonight, and service isn't expected to up and running until Wednesday.  The outage is between Byrne Road, Glanzman Road, Detroit Avenue and Schneider Avenue.  Columbia Gas workers have to shut off the power to each resident in that area before service can start again.

Many of the neighbors have door tags at their houses because gas workers had to go door-to-door to turn service off.  They'll have to do the same thing on Wednesday to get service back on.

The natural gas outage is being blamed on a valve dysfunction that happened Tuesday morning. Crews from across the state have been working since this afternoon shutting off gas in each of those 1,132 homes.  They expect all impacted customers to have their gas off by 12 A.M. Tuesday. Once that happens, gas workers can begin the process of getting the gas back on for people Wednesday morning. It's an inconvenience for neighbors, but many are understanding of the situation.

"We've got a couple of electric heaters, we've got them plugged in, we're bundled up, so we should be okay," says Steve Mericle who lives off Heatherdowns.  "I'm sure we'll survive the night."

"We do apologize to all the customers fro this inconvenience tonight and our goal is to provide safe, reliable service," says Chris Kozak with Columbia Gas of Ohio.  "We're going to do everything we can to get everyone back on."

The Red Cross has opened a shelter for impacted customers at the intersection of Glanzman and Byrne at Cedar Creek Church.  You do have to be home for crews to restore service on Wednesday.  If you're not there, Columbia Gas will leave a phone number for you to call so that someone can come back out.  To reach their customer service line, call 1-800-344-4077.