could be 24 hours to get everyone up and running. 5 on your side, joe pagonakis. >> thank you. frank, you were in the western suburbs and found a similar story of trees down and power out. >> reporter: i did. moments ago there were lightning strikes. the problem so bad people sitting in their homes with candles. candles and signals seemed complicated. >> the slowing down. >> reporter: the rain did not. transformer and pow again. it went 3 times. busy times for clean up crews. emergency vehicles were cleaning up littered debris. >> you could see some. >> bill and his friend stood in line behind thousands more who want power who have to wait. 19600 people sitting in the dark tonight. >>> meteorologist, kara, are we >> not yet. it is impacting downtown for the tribe game tonight. another round of wet weather is in place in cuyahoga. picking up on rain in mayfield heights. strong thunderstorms on they will use the wind shield wipers on full blast. the darker red will have heavy rainfall. 4:22 will be slower. we are watching this move there are lightning flashes with light activity

meanwhile, cuyahoga county courts are looking at these new guidelines, i'm 5 on your side joe pagonakis. >>> with the smash and grab ring busted up on tuesday, prosecutors now say the 11 men thefts in northeast ohio in the last year and a half! and get this, over the past five years, have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars and done millions in damage. eight are behind bars, but three of them, earl davis, elijah reed and jarrel williams are still on the run. expecting more people to be charged. >>> newschannel 5 asking more questions after a pile up in the tush pike construction zone and what the turnpike says about their construction traffic plan. >>> plus, whether it's the clean up, whether the water has receded, or the area is now flooded over, the images out of louisiana are startling tonight. what's being done to help those still trapped. >>> and we're tracking a few more thunderstorms for your thursday. will they impact the browns game? i'll have the answer for you coming up. >>> history, discovered deep below the water, the shipwreck found . >>> not a bird, it's not a plane.

we sent 5 on your side investigator joe pagonakis for answers. >> reporter: down lines on the street and grounded powerline equipment tossed everywhere. it has created a real challenge in restored electricity to all parts of the city. lot of times when they restore one, they find a couple more problems down the line. >> reporter: the fire chief dave freeman says the mixing action of the high winds has made it tough to untangle all of the damage. >> we have so many wires down in the city. any kind of debris removed that have been entangled in wires. that is when you're trying to get out to every address that had wires to get some caution tape. >> reporter: all of the short rainstorms and high heat over the past couple hampered the efforts by cleanup crews. >> definitely the weather is slowing us down. it has kept us taking a lot of breaks to try to keep hydrated. >> we are staying at friends' houses that live nearby. we have water, so that is good. >> reporter: dozens of cleveland heights residents still without power. chief raymond -- chief freeman says that is a pretty good idea. >>

reporting live here i'm joe pagonakis. >>> only on 5:00 tonight, one local family's brush with mother nature. after a 100-year-old tree almost fell right on top of them. our mike brookbank h that remains a stomp where a 100-year-old oak tree once stood. it was taken out in that microburst here in cleveland heights. it really lead to a close call for the family that lives in the home right here. michael adams and his family inside their family room watching tv at time that the storm would come through unaware of what was happening outside. the wind and the rain that will be so intense that they would have no idea that the tree came down within feet of crashing where it was stopped by an oak tree in our yard with a 45- degree angle. about two feet away from the oldest kid's head. >> reporter: not only was the family lucky that they didn't come crashing through their family room that they would have friends and family in the neighborhood and they have not lost any food because of the power outage. this area has not had power since tuesday night. in cleveland heights mike brookbank news c