CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – More than 8,000 First Energy customers are powerless Sunday morning as windy conditions are expected to continue into the afternoon for many Northeast Ohio counties.

As of 8:30 a.m., FirstEnergy’s website says more than 8,000 customers are without power. Cleveland Public Power is reporting widespread outages and AEP is reporting over 1,000.

Click your power company link above for the latest outage information.

According to their websites, crews are on the way to make repairs.

Ashland, Erie, Holmes, Huron, Lorain, Media, Richland, Wayne, Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, Cuyahoga, Portage, Stark and Summit counties are all under wind advisories until 2 p.m. In these counties, winds could gust up to 50 mph

Get the latest 19 First Alert Forecast

Closings/Delays in Northeast Ohio

Download the 19 First Alert Weather App

Click here for the latest from the 19 News First Alert Weather Team.

Copyright 2025 WOIO. All rights reserved.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — As usual, the MAC men’s basketball tournament has been filled with close games and emotions flaring, all in the name of winning.

No. 1 seed Akron took care of business in Friday’s semifinal win over No. 4 Toledo, and No. 2 Miami did the same in the nightcap game over No. 3 Kent State.

The Zips (27-6) and RedHawks (25-8) face off in Saturday’s MAC championship game, with an NCAA Tournament berth on the line.

Akron head coach John Groce is looking to win his fifth career MAC tournament crown, and Miami’s Travis Steele is still searching for his first.

However, there’s also family bragging rights at stake among the coaches.

That’s right.

Through their mother, Barbara Steele, the head coaches are half-brothers. Natives of Danville, Indiana, there’s a 10-year age gap in between the two.

Groce, the older brother, played at Taylor University in the early 1990s before joining the coaching staff as an assistant.

After Taylor, Groce joined Herb Sendek’s staff at NC State in the late 1990s. Steele was a high school basketball player, but recalled on The Field Of 68: After Dark the time he spent with Groce.

“I would spend the summers a lot with him, go to camp (and) he was kind enough to work me out. And I would just kind of sit around and got exposed to college basketball at a really young age,” Steele said. “I knew I wanted to do what I wanted to do at an early age, due to him.

Steele showed a desire to get into coaching, and Groce would help him along the way.

Going into the millennium, the brothers were now at Butler.

Groce joined Thad Matta’s staff as an assistant for the 2000-01 season, while Steele was a student manager for the Bulldogs.

Matta then went to Xavier for three seasons, and Groce followed him. During this time, Steele finished his bachelor’s degree at Butler, and was an assistant for nearby Ben Davis High School.

Ahead of the 2004-05 season, Groce followed Matta again to Ohio State, then Steele did the same and joined the Buckeyes as a graduate assistant.

That was the last time the brothers were on the same coaching staff, as Steele moved onto Wabash Valley Community College after the season concluded.

But he’ll always credit Groce with helping him find his passion in coaching.

“(I) kind of always wanted to follow in (Groce’s) footsteps in a lot of ways and he’s a big reason why I’m where I am today,” Steele said. “I wouldn’t be here without him, there’s no doubt about it.”

Groce and Steele aren’t the only set of brothers that are head coaches within the Division I college basketball scene.

You have Dan Hurley, head coach of the defending champion UConn Huskies, who’s the younger brother of Arizona State’s Bobby Hurley.

There’s also Scott Drew, who won it all with Baylor in 2021, and is the older brother of Grand Canyon’s Bryce Drew. And Sean Miller of Xavier and older brother of Rhode Island’s Archie Miller.

Though, it hits different that your brother’s squad is all that sits in the way of making the NCAA Tournament.

The Zips and RedHawks met once in the regular season, with Akron winning the January meeting by 27 points.

Now, the brothers meet with a ticket to the big dance on the line, and bragging rights for the next big family dinner.

CLEVELAND — Every year, the Cleveland Orchestra leaves Severance Hall, hitting the road to perform in places like New York, Florida and even overseas, but to make that possible, they must pack up the instruments and equipment of more than 100 musicians.

Stage manager Joe Short said his team handles the plan to get everything from point A to point B safely. 

“My team and I will be responsible for two well-packed, 53 foot, temperature-controlled trucks,” Short said. “Temperature controlled because of the old and delicate instruments, so we’re watching temperature and humidity.”

While the Orchestra has done three week tours in Europe and Asia, right now, Short said they’re prepping for what he calls a “run-out” to New York City, where they’ll spend two nights performing in the legendary Carnegie Hall. 

“It’s as big a deal to an American orchestra as one would think it is to play at Carnegie Hall,” he said. “There’s quite a bit of anticipation, quite a bit of excitement. No matter how often we go, and we go every year, it’s still very exciting for myself, my crew and the musicians when we walk through the door and onstage at Carnegie Hall.”

Short said about 10 to 15 orchestra staffers, depending on the length and distance of the trip, work to ensure everything in the travel process runs smoothly, so the musicians can just focus on their performance. 

In the days and weeks before a trip, instrument and equipment cases line the hallways of Severance Hall. Then, on the day of departure, Short and his crew will load it all into temperature-controlled trucks before meeting them in NYC that afternoon.

“It’s a little bit harder to load into New York than it is in some other American cities because of the lack of loading docks, because of the lack of real estate,” he said. “So it’ll take about three hours from start to finish, about an hour and a half to unload the instruments, and then about an hour and a half to get everything in the right place, get everything unpacked and get the stage set.”

From there, his crew grabs a quick dinner before the orchestra starts their rehearsal, and the show eventually begins. Then they’ll tear down and reset the stage for their next performance, and pack it all up to come back to Cleveland again.

For trips overseas, Short said they have to bring all the equipment to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport or JFK in New York, and fly it all out on a large cargo flight because Cleveland’s aren’t large enough to support their needs.

It’s a lot of logistics and work, Short said, but worth the experience for the musicians and to uplift the city of Cleveland around the world.

“We’re very proud to share the Cleveland Orchestra with cities who otherwise may not have an opportunity to ever hear of the city of Cleveland,” he said.

And, he added, none of this would be possible without the help of another Orchestra administrator.

“It would not be possible without Rebecca Vineyard, who’s the director of touring and operations, who is in charge of all of this,” he said. “She’s in charge of the trucks. She’s in charge of the hotels. She’s in charge of the flight. She’s in charge of the water backstage. She’s literally in charge of everything the Cleveland Orchestra does on tour, and she is our hero. And none of us could do it without her.”

The Cleveland Orchestra is performing in Carnegie Hall on March 18 and 19 before coming home to finish out the season.