Two Hilliard-area roads shut down by the Aug. 11 derecho reopened Aug. 17, ending nearly a week of detours for drivers on Rodebaugh Road and Amity Road.

The Franklin County Engineer's Office announced on X that Rodebaugh Road between Daugherty Drive and Waggoner Road is open to traffic. The office also confirmed that Amity Road between Carter Road and Scioto & Darby Creek Road has reopened.

Both roads were closed after downed power lines from the Aug. 11 storm made them impassable. We reported the Rodebaugh Road closure Aug. 12, when AEP Ohio was still working to restore power to tens of thousands of Franklin County customers and no reopening date had been set.

The derecho tore across the Midwest on the morning of Aug. 11, with wind gusts reaching 82 mph at John Glenn Columbus International Airport. Across AEP Ohio's service area, roughly 100,000 customers lost power. Franklin County had the most outages in AEP Ohio's footprint, with 7,389 customers without power as of 7 a.m. that day.

Cleanup continues

While the roads are clear, Hilliard's storm recovery is not finished. The city's storm response page showed, in a Aug. 14 update, that chipper crews had completed the Blue Zone and moved into the Purple Zone, including the Britton Farms and Carrington Place neighborhoods. The Green Zone is next. Crews were back out Monday morning.

Public Service Director Kyle Hoyng told Fox 28 Columbus on Aug. 12 that road clearing came first in the city's storm response. "The priority was definitely trying to open roads up and make sure vehicles were able to kind of get through through the different arterials," Hoyng said at the time.

Residents in areas already serviced by chipper crews who have additional limbs and branches can submit a request at hilliardohio.gov/hilliardhelps. Those in areas not yet reached should place branches along the curb.

Franklin County Emergency Management is also encouraging residents who experienced storm damage to submit a report to help document the storm's impact. Chipper crews will continue working through the Green Zone this week, and residents can check hilliardohio.gov for schedule updates.