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LaSalle Apartment without power following major downtown outage

FirstEnergy officials said the lastest outage happened late Tuesday morning when a circuit tripped taking out a line. There is no word on when power will be back.

TOLEDO, Ohio — The LaSalle Apartment, a ten-story apartment building in downtown, has been running without power and water since 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

"The halls are dark, we can only use the stairs to get up and down, so we'll see," Kiersten Recker, a LaSalle resident, said.

The elevator, flood lights, bathrooms and more have been completely cut off. Residents will be dealing with some very uncomfortable conditions until FirstEnergy is able to determine the cause of the outage and make repairs.

"Hell," ten-year resident Michael Early said. "It's hell. "

That's how Michael Early explained the walk to his apartment on the eighth floor Tuesday afternoon in the dead heat. His family wasn't home when the power went out, but Recker was just waking up after her night shift at the hospital.

"I woke up checked my email and saw that the power was out and did my best to try to fall back asleep, but it's hot, you can't use the bathrooms, you can't eat any food," Recker said. "You can't really do anything. "

FirstEnergy officials said this outage happened late Tuesday morning when a circuit tripped taking out a line. The Ohio Building on Superior also lost power. Officials with First Energy don't know if this outage is related to the original one that began last week knocking power out to five Downtown Toledo buildings.

"I was kind of waiting for it," Spencer Hines, another resident, said. "When the others buildings went out I thought maybe this one would go out as well. "

Officials with FirstEnergy said they are working around the clock to discover the issue and eventually restore power, but a timeline for when that will happen is still unclear.

While LaSalle managers are doing their best to accommodate residents by escorting them to their rooms, providing flashlights, water, extra security and more, some residents are packing up and leaving for the night.

"It's frustrating because I have a wife that's sick and she needs her air and she can't walk up and down the steps so we needed the elevator and I had to take her somewhere for the night," Early said. 

"I hope it's soon for the sake of all of our food that we have upstairs and all the residents that don't have another place to go," Recker said.

Some renters said they wished there was a better back up plan, but they understand this outage was out of their management's control and they have to roll with the punches.

"The power can go out wherever you live no matter what so we kind of knew going in living on the seventh floor that this could eventually happen," Hines said. "Obviously, more emergency prep could have gone into it, maybe a generator. "

While they said they hope they aren't in the dark much longer, Early is looking on the bright side.

"I won't have to work out in the morning," joked Early before his eight story stair climb.

The LaSalle Apartment is pet friendly and several residents with dogs said they are staying elsewhere until this outage is resolved because of the heat and hike to take their pet in and out of the building multiple times a day.

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