Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) is answering the call to provide mutual assistance to its sister company, Kentucky Power, after catastrophic flooding disrupted electricity to its 21,000 customers.
More than 80 I&M line workers, damage assessors, forestry experts, support staff and business partners are in-route to eastern Kentucky. Crews will work 16-hour days in the treacherous terrain to restore electricity to impacted communities to help further recovery efforts. Mutual assistance crews will work around washed out and debris stricken roads, standing water, numerous downed trees and hilly terrain to restore power.
I&M crews from Fort Wayne, South Bend/Elkhart, Marion, Muncie and southwest Michigan will join more than 450 Kentucky Power employees, business partners and mutual assistance crews in Kentucky. Crews will set new power poles, string new power lines and repair equipment until the last impacted customer is restored to service. Though there is no timetable for our crews’ return, I&M wants to assure customers that the company is ready and prepared to respond if outages occur here in Indiana and Michigan.
I&M employees have a long-history of working safely to restore communities in the wake of natural disasters. The company has mutual assistance agreements with utilities across the nation and is always available to help weather permitting at home. In turn, I&M has benefited when crews from other areas helped with storm restoration in Indiana and Michigan.
Customers can follow I&M’s role in restoration efforts on our social media pages, including Facebook and Twitter.