Indiana Michigan Power has restored service to more than 13,000 customers who lost service Friday night and Saturday as a result of the freezing rain and snow that struck the Michiana area.

Crews assessing damage have recorded at least 50 spans of wire down.

Many of the outages can be attributed to trees, limbs and branches falling into power lines from the weight of ice and snow. The National Weather Service recorded ice from freezing rain as thick as ¼ inch in Indiana’s St. Joseph County, and snow of up to 1.9 inches was recorded in South Bend.

Approximately, 200 dedicated I&M employees and contractors continue working in difficult conditions to restore power to those affected by the recent ice storm. Starting tomorrow morning, hundreds of additional AEP employees and contractors from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia will join current I&M crews and contractors in the South Bend/Elkhart area.

I&M strongly advises our customers and the public to continue to use significant caution to remain safe during this outage.

It is vital to the safety of our customers and crews that customers who use generators must follow all the guidelines for proper use. It is extremely important never to use a generator indoors or in a partially enclosed space, and never to plug a generator into a wall outlet.

Generator safety rules can be found at IndianaMichiganPower.com/safety/AtHomeSafety/PortableGenerators.aspx

This video from an I&M Safety & Health professional working with restoration crews Saturday reviews other safety concerns, including:

• 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.
• Many roads are icy and may be covered with debris. Please use extreme caution if you must walk outside or drive.
• 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 pertaining to COVID-19 including physical distancing. We urge the general public not to approach our crews.

ESTIMATED TIMES OF RESTORATION

I&M will continue to restore power to customers until 100% of customers are restored. I&M has established estimated times of restoration for customers affected by the winter storm outages:

South Bend/Elkhart area:

• 75% restored: 11 p.m. Sunday
• 100% restored:  3 p.m. Monday

Southwest Michigan:

• 100% restored: 6 p.m. Sunday

Fort Wayne area:

• 100% restored: 11 p.m. today

Most customers will be restored before those times. See the section under “Stay Informed” for ways customers can check the status of outages in their area.

Additional crews from Fort Wayne, Muncie, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia are assisting I&M crews and contractors based in South Bend/Elkhart and Southwest Michigan to restore power in the Michiana area.

APPROXIMATE OUTAGE NUMBERS:

• Indiana Total Customer Outages: 22,700
• South Bend/Elkhart area: 22,700

• Michigan Total Customer Outages: 1,300
• Buchanan area: 640
• Three Rivers area:  670

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