Indiana Michigan Power made significant progress restoring power Wednesday morning and afternoon. As of 4 p.m., power has been restored to more than 85% of the approximately 52,000 customers whose service was disrupted by a powerful derecho with winds of up to 66 mph.

With outage numbers dropping to under 300 in Indiana, a large contingent of about 450 I&M employees, business partners and colleagues from other utilities are spread across the hard-hit Benton Harbor area to bring power back to our customers. The heavy winds broke or damaged at least 38 poles in the Benton Harbor area.

Elsewhere in Michigan, power has been restored to all customers in the Buchanan area and all but fewer than 50 customers in the Three Rivers area.

Across I&M’s service territory, more than 900 restoration professionals from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Kentucky and other parts of Indiana and Michigan are assisting I&M employees to complete restoration.

OUTAGE COUNTS

Michigan total customers: 6,725

Benton Harbor area: 6,700

Buchanan area: Zero

Three Rivers area: Less than 50

Indiana total customers: 275

Fort Wayne area: 50

South Bend area: 225

ESTIMATED TIMES of RESTORATION (ETRs)

I&M has set estimated times of restoration for its service territory. These are the estimated times when the last customers are expected to be restored. Power to most customers will be restored before those times. Earlier times of restoration are being established as individual outages are assessed and crews assigned.  Customers who sign up for mobile alerts or check our online outage map may find earlier times have been entered by crews assigned to specific outages. See the “Stay Informed” section below.

INDIANA

Fort Wayne area: Restored

Avilla area: 11 p.m. Thursday

South Bend/Elkhart area: 11 p.m. today

MICHIGAN
Benton Harbor area: 11 p.m. Friday

Buchanan area: Restored

Three Rivers area: 11 p.m. today

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

SAFETY INFORMATION

I&M reminds our customers and the general public of the possible dangers in the wake of the storm:

• 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. Downed wires may be hidden by limbs and debris or touching a fence, so look carefully before cleaning up after the storm.
• Trees could fall or drop limbs at any moment, please look up. Even after the storm subsided, damaged trees, branches and limbs could still fall.
• 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.
• As we move into working on individual outages, crews will be working in smaller neighborhoods, side streets, and backyards. Please keep pets secured and away from work areas.