Indiana Michigan Power, in about 48 hours, has restored power to more than 95% of the approximately 52,000 customers whose service was disrupted by a powerful derecho Monday evening.

Power has been restored to all Indiana customers who lost service as a result of Monday’s storm. In Michigan, all customers in the Buchanan and Three Rivers areas have their power restored.

I&M continues to concentrate a large number of personnel in the company’s hard-hit Benton Harbor area, where winds of up to 66 mph resulted in 48 broken or damaged poles. A large contingent of about 450 I&M employees, business partners and colleagues from other utilities spread across the hard-hit Benton Harbor area to bring power back to our customers.

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

For more about how mutual assistance brought a large number of crews from outside I&M to assist with restoration, see this story on IndianaMichiganPower.com

OUTAGE COUNTS

Michigan total customers: 2,075, all in the Benton Harbor area.

Indiana total customers: Fully restored

ESTIMATED TIMES of RESTORATION (ETR)

I&M expects to restore power to all of the Benton Harbor area customers who lost service as a result of the storm by 11 p.m. Friday. This is when the last customers are expected to be restored. Power to most customers will be restored before then. 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.

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.