I&M Working To Restore Service After Storms

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powerlines4343-13

Indiana Michigan Power is working to restore service to those who lost power during storms overnight and on Wednesday. I&M has released the following statement:

I&M crews restored power to more than 90% of customers who lost service due to damage wreaked by the storms that swept across the Michiana area on Tuesday evening and again overnight. Crews are also working to restore power to customers in the Marion area and northeast Indiana as a new storm swept across the area Wednesday afternoon.

I&M employee and contract crews from the Michiana area and beyond are replacing and repairing poles, transformers, power lines and other equipment. At 3:30 p.m., fewer than 1,000 customers remained without service. At its peak, more than 13,000 customers were affected, with an additional 3,000 affected overnight. Virtually all of the remaining customers without service are in the South Bend/Elkhart area and southwest Michigan.

With the largest outages restored in those areas, crews are working now on smaller outages involving fewer customers and plan to have all customers who lost service from the previous storms to be restored by 11 p.m. today.

Crews are also working to restore power west and north of Marion, which is experiencing three large outages. In the Fort Wayne area, outages were affecting Ligonier, Churubusco and New Haven.

SAFETY INFO
Given the high winds, accompanied by heavy rainfall at times, please pay attention to several safety precautions:
• Downed power lines. Stay away from any downed wires and report them to I&M. You can call us at 800-311-4634, report on our app or website, or call 911.
• Trees could fall or drop limbs at any moment, please look up.
• Standing water could hide debris or even downed wires.
• Roads will likely be wet, slick and covered with debris.
• Traffic lights may not be functioning. Please use caution and be mindful of first responders and utility workers on the roadways.
• Crews will be following all CDC guidelines on physical distancing and we urge the general public not to approach our crews.
• Temperatures and humidity levels remain high for this time of the year. We urge anyone working outside to look for signs of heat stress and take appropriate precautions at the first sign of heat-related fatigue.

OUTAGE NUMBERS:.
Indiana Total Customer Outages:
South Bend/Elkhart area: 475
Marion: 3,900
Fort Wayne area: 1,275

Michigan Total Customer Outages:
Benton Harbor area: 240
Buchanan area: 150
Three Rivers area: 85

ESTIMATED RESTORATION TIMES (ETRs)
We expect all those customers affected by the wind event last evening to be restored by 11 p.m. tonight. Many of the outages still remaining are isolated in nature or in harder to reach access areas. Additional storms are expected today, and this could impact the timeline of restorations for outages that occurred this afternoon.

STAY INFORMED
I&M encourages customers to use the Indiana Michigan Power app to monitor the status of any outage affecting your home or business. IndianaMichiganPower.com/App
You can sign up for text and email alerts on the app or at IndianaMichiganPower.com/Alerts
See the location and status of outages using our outage map at IndianaMichiganPower.com/OutageMap
For the latest updates please follow Indiana Michigan Power on Facebook and find us on Twitter @IN_MI_Power