Indiana Michigan Power prepping for outages from stormy weather

 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. --- Storms expected to bring strong rain, possible snow, and potentially damaging winds to Michiana, which is why Indiana Michigan Power said they’ll be on standby to tackle any outages.

“We are constantly monitoring the weather and watching to see what’s going to happen and preparing in case outages do occur across the system,” said Michael Bianski, the Senior Communications Consultant with Indiana Michigan Power.

Bianksi said with the potential for wind gusts to reach up to 50 mph they’ll be on the lookout for downed power lines and tree limbs that could knock out power.

“I’m always concerned when they’re supposed to be cold, especially if there’s going to be wind, with my house and large trees and things around you always have to watch out for branches and things like that especially in the winter time,” said local resident Randy Brush.

Bianski said if people do come across downed trees, limbs, or power lines always exercise caution.

“Please be aware of any downed wires, look around and if you see one definitely don’t approach it, always stay pretty far away call us call 911 and report those,” he warned.

The power company is also asking everyone to be prepared for potential outages.

“We always recommend having a stock emergency outage kit or just an emergency kit for your home so that includes stuff like bottled water, batteries, battery powered radio or television maybe like a cell phone charger so a backup battery bank for your cell phone,” said Bianski.

“We do have plenty of flashlights, plenty of batteries. We have one drawer that’s just loaded with like every kind of battery,  so candles also just handwarmers lots of blankets, we’ve got a reliable heat source. We’ve got a big bull dog so she’ll be our little insulator if we do have a power outage,” added Katherine Barrett who lives in South Bend.

I&M said if outages do occur extra crews will be working around the clock to restore power as soon possible so they’re asking everyone to be patient.

You can report downed lines or outages and get updates on restorations times if those outages do happen here.