The high winds have reached Akron and some Akron school students are being sent home early.
The National Weather Service reports the peak wind recorded so far in Akron was a gust of 56 miles per hour at Akron-Canton Regional Airport.
The Akron area is under a wind advisory until 7 p.m.
Sustained winds between 20 and 30 mph are expected this afternoon with gusts of more than 50 mph expected.
The weather service warns the winds could bring down limbs and trees and knock out power.
This is already the case throughout the region.
As of 2:30 p.m. FirstEnergy reports there were some 11,644 customers in the dark in Summit County alone. Another 5,625 customers were without power in Portage County.
Akron’s Kenmore High School was forced to close early Wednesday and sent students home because it lost power.
A large outage was reported in the area of Revere High School in Bath Township.
FirstEnergy warned customers that it might be as late as 11 p.m. before power is restored to most of its customers.
Ohio Turnpike is banning certain vehicles — mostly large trucks and trailers — from a 161-mile stretch of the roadway from the Ohio-Indiana line to Strongsville.
The ban started at noon and will be lifted once the high winds subside.
The vehicles subject to the ban include:
• All triple-trailer combination commercial vehicles
• Box-type double-trailer combination commercial vehicles in excess of ninety (90) feet in length
• Mobile home/Office trailers
• Boat and horse trailers towed by passenger vehicles or pickup trucks
• High-profile campers and enclosed trailers, which are defined as trailers designed for a person of average height to stand in
The ban does not restrict the following:
• Self-propelled motor homes
• Low-profile trailers
• Fold-down camper trailers
• Pickup trucks with slide-on camper units
• Vehicles towing fifth-wheel type trailers or any other type of trailers towed by passenger vehicles or pickup trucks
• Commercial trucks towing single flatbed or box-type trailers
• Flatbed double-trailer combinations in excess of ninety (90) feet and any double-trailer combination commercial vehicles less than ninety (90) feet.