LAKEWOOD, Ohio (WOIO) – A power outage stretching into its second day left roughly 1,200 customers without electricity across Lakewood’s southwest side, forcing small businesses to operate on bare-bones staffing and sending at least one diabetic resident scrambling to keep insulin refrigerated.

Businesses push through with cash and calculators

At the Lakewood Garden Center, manager Isabella Dombrowski kept the doors open despite sweltering conditions inside the shop — no power, no fans.

“It is swampy and it’s disgusting and I’m pissed the power is out,” Dombrowski said.

With no electronic registers, staff switched to cash-only transactions, counting back change by hand and using phone calculators to process sales.

“We try to service people how we can, even if it’s running with bare-bones staff and our phone calculator — we will work with you,” Dombrowski said.

Resident forced to relocate insulin amid outage

For Hunter Duseau, the outage created a medical emergency.

“For me the most frustrating thing is I’m diabetic and I have to keep my insulin refrigerated, so I had to scramble to get it to my friend’s house,” Duseau said.

Mayor points to Lauderdale substation, calls out FirstEnergy

Lakewood Mayor Meghan George said the outages trace back to the Lauderdale substation, which knocked out power to much of the city’s southwest side. She visited Haze Elementary Friday morning, where FirstEnergy crews were installing a backup generator for that substation.

“I was just at Haze Elementary this morning, where FirstEnergy is installing a backup generator for this Lauderdale substation,” George said.

The mayor did not hold back in her criticism of the utility.

“For FirstEnergy to continue to fail us is completely unacceptable,” George said.

FirstEnergy responds, cites heat wave and infrastructure investment

In a statement to 19 News, FirstEnergy acknowledged the impact of the outages and attributed the strain to an extreme heat wave driving elevated electricity demand across the region.

“We understand the frustration and hardship these outages have caused for Lakewood residents, especially during this period of extreme heat,” the statement read. “Our crews, engineers and system operators have been working around the clock to restore service safely and as quickly as possible for affected customers.”

FirstEnergy said it is investing millions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades and reliability improvements for Lakewood and surrounding communities and said it appreciates Mayor George’s advocacy for residents.

Power has since been restored. Power had been flickering on and off since Wednesday.

Free water available at area Giant Eagle locations

FirstEnergy said free water is available for customers beginning Thursday at 4 p.m. through Sunday evening, or while supplies last, at the following Giant Eagle locations:

• 14100 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, OH 44107
• 3050 W. 117th St., Cleveland, OH 44111
• 22160 Center Ridge Rd., Rocky River, OH 44116

Residents are also encouraged to use available cooling centers and community resources during the ongoing heat event.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A woman was found dead in the backyard of a home on the city’s West side Friday morning.

Officers responded to the 3400 block of Bosworth Rd. around 9 a.m. for a welfare check.

This is in the city’s West Boulevard neighborhood.

When officers arrived at the home, they found the victim.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Officer will now determine the victim’s name and cause of death.

A child connected to the woman has been located and confirmed safe, said Cleveland police.

Police added the circumstances regarding the death remain under investigation.

This forecast is outdated and inaccurate. Get the latest forecast here.

CLEVELAND (WJW) — (WJW) — The National Weather Service has extended its EXTREME HEAT WARNING for all of Northeast Ohio.

It will remain in effect until 8 p.m. on Friday, July 3, in Ashland, Ashtabula, Crawford, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Holmes, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning Medina, Ottawa, Portage, Richland, Sandusky, Stark, Summit, Trumbull and Wayne counties; and until 10 p.m. Friday, July 3, in Carroll, Coshocton and Tuscarawas counties.

The heat waves continues! An EXTREME HEAT WARNING will remain in effect through 8 p.m. Friday. Heat indices could top 105 degrees during the hottest time of day on Friday.

Once again, there will not be much relief from the heat and humidity overnight. Tonight lows will be in the mid to upper 70s again. Feeling warmer with the higher humidity. Mostly clear skies.

Friday will be the last sweltering summer day before the heat starts to back off for the Fourth of July holiday weekend. There is the chance of rain and storms Friday evening, around 7pm that could go through the late evening. This may impact some 4th of July celebrations on Friday. Any storm that pops up we’ll have to watch for the potential of gusty winds, heavy downpours and large hail.

This is what the radar could look like by the time some Fireworks celebrations are expected Friday evening. We have a level 2 out of 5 chance of any storm turning severe, meaning that 1 or 2 have the chance.

The upper-level ridge, or heat dome, will start to breakdown on Friday. This means two things. The first is it will go from being very hot and humid to being very warm and humid. The second thing is the chance of rain and threat of storms will return.

The Fourth of July holiday weekend will be far from a washout! There will be more dry time than time with downpours and storms. However, clusters of downpours and storms will move through Northeast Ohio at times. This means some Fourth of July events, backyard BBQs, pool parties, and firework shows could be impacted by rain and storms.

With all the heat and humidity around, any downpours or storms that develop could be strong and produce gusty winds, small hail, torrential rain, and lightning. Here’s the latest 8 Day Forecast:

Keep up with FOX 8 News for the latest weather updates.