On what one resident described as a “three dog night” in Marietta earlier this week, more than 1,100 customers lost electricity for a few hours — meaning just as the temperatures plummeted to their bitter coldest, many lost the ability to heat their homes.

But, according to an AEP spokesperson, the outage that began at 2:24 a.m. was over by 5:23 a.m. because equipment was “replaced and fixed” quickly.

That didn’t happen on its own.

Knowing the outage was affecting not only residents but Memorial Health System’s buildings (not in any way that affected patients or patient care, according to a statement), AEP employees quickly got to work in the arctic conditions.

It’s easy to forget that when we are hit with extremes such as what our region experienced, those responsible for keeping the rest of us safe cannot hunker down and stay warm at home.

“With the temperatures as cold as they were (Monday night and Tuesday morning) I appreciate AEP getting their men and women out into the field and getting that taken care of within three hours,” said Washington County Commissioner Charlie Schilling. “That is big.”

It’s huge.

Think about it, as some of you perhaps are using space heaters at your desks even as the temperatures have risen back to what we consider normal around here in the winter. Would you have been able to answer the call if you were asked to do emergency work in the wee small hours of that frozen evening?

Fortunately, we know there are some who were willing and able, and kept what could have been a dangerous situation from lasting any longer than necessary. Thank you, folks.