Power restored to many Ohioans; thousands still in dark

This story was last updated at 10:45 p.m. Thursday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- More than 20,000 Ohioans -- most of them in central Ohio -- were without power Thursday evening as gusty winds downed power lines across the state.

By 8:45 p.m., power was restored to thousands of Ohioans' homes, including nearly 6,000 households in Franklin County. Outages continued -- and in some cases increased -- in southeast Ohio at night, but by 11 p.m., outages in most counties began to dwindle.

AEP confirmed all three major Columbus outages are related to severe weather, and it is sending crews to the affected areas. It could not confirm whether downed wires were the cause of the outages.

As of 10:45 p.m. Thursday, AEP reported the following outages by county:

• Franklin: 1,651
• Delaware: 238
• Athens: 630
• Morgan: 1,286
• Licking: 540
• Richland: <5
• Muskingum: 997
• Ross: 342
• Hocking: 39
• Pickaway: 103
• Knox: <5
• Fairfield: 31
• Madison: 16

You can check Ohio power outages by electric company below. South Central Power outages can be monitored here.

AEP

FirstEnergy/Ohio Edison

Union Rural Electric