TOLEDO, Ohio — Some residents in Toledo's Old Orchard neighborhood took a hit and are still without power due to Wednesday's storm.
Resident Beth Blankerts said her power went out at Barrington Drive home about 5 p.m. Wednesday.
"When I came in and I hit the garage door opener it didn't go up, so I thought 'Ah, I don't have power,'" she said.
According to Toledo Edison, her neighborhood might not get its power back until Saturday afternoon.
"The first thing I'm doing is keeping my drapes closed. That keeps the sun out," Blankerts said. "It's a little dark in the house, but keeps the heat out as well, and if it really gets hot I can go down in the basement because the basement is always cold."
Blankerts has worked for years in the food industry and has suggestions for anyone else stuck in the situation and unsure what to do about their food.
"You want to use your perishable things first like your milk and your eggs cause they'll spoil. And your fresh produce and things," Blankerts said. "Then if it goes on another couple of days you can start with your things that have started to thaw."
One of Blankerts' neighbors, Caroline Moening, is in the same boat and decided to bring everything in her freezer to another neighbor's house.
"The air conditioning won't even be on now until Saturday perhaps, and we thought, well, that's not gonna work," said Moening. "We'll have to take the food out of the freezer and take it over across the street. She volunteered to let us have part of her freezer, so bless her heart."
As for dinner tonight and tomorrow, since Moening can't cook, she's already making plans.
"We'll probably go out to dinner. We have to do that," said Moening. "We can pretty much manage breakfast and lunch. Well, lunch anyway. Breakfast we had to go out this morning because we couldn't brew any coffee."
It's a waiting game for Old Orchard residents and many others who know things could be worse.
"We've had storms like this before and we've always come out of them just fine. So we'll be fine this time as well," Blankerts said.