Indiana Michigan Power has restored more than 55% of the nearly 20,000 customers who lost power Friday night and early Saturday as a result of the strong thunderstorms with significant lightning and high winds swept that through southwest Michigan and northern Indiana.
Crews discovered numerous fallen trees and limbs, at least 8 broken poles and at least a dozen spans of wire down as a result of the storm.
ESTIMATED RESTORATION TIMES (ETRs)
Estimated Times of Restoration have been established for customers impacted by the storms. Many customers will be restored before the listed times, as crews move from outage to outage to return power to all customers. ETRs for the affected areas are:
Michigan
Benton Harbor area: 75% of customers by 11 p.m. tonight and 100% by 11 p.m. Sunday
Three Rivers area: 85% of customers by 11 p.m. tonight and 100% by 3 p.m. Sunday
Buchanan area: 100% or customers by 8 p.m. tonight
Indiana
South Bend area: 100% by 11 p.m. tonight
Elkhart: All customers have been restored
Fort Wayne area: 100% by 11 p.m. tonight
OUTAGE NUMBERS:.
As of 2 p.m., approximate outage numbers were:
Michigan Total Customer Outages: 7,800
Benton Harbor area: 4,600
Buchanan area: 1,600
Three Rivers area: 1,500
Indiana Total Customer Outages: 750
Fort Wayne area: 550
South Bend area: 200
SAFETY INFO
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.
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