Most residents have power restored following high winds

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- Heavy winds Friday following days of rainfall created dangerous conditions that led to falling trees and downed power lines across northern Indiana and southwest Michigan, leaving thousands of customers without electricity.

By Friday evening, Indiana Michigan Power reported about 16,000 outages across its service area.

Demetrious Lewis, a senior communications specialist with the utility, said crews made significant progress restoring service.

“Up to this point, approximately 2,300 customers are without power, most of them being in Indiana,” Lewis said.

With calmer weather on Saturday, restoration efforts accelerated.

“Our crews did everything they could on Friday,” Lewis said. “They’re taking full advantage of this favorable weather that we have here on this Saturday. Most customers will be restored by 11 p.m. Saturday.”

Some repairs took longer because of the same weather conditions that caused the outages. High winds prevented crews from deploying bucket trucks in some areas.

In Michigan, Midwest Energy and Communications reported 13 broken utility poles, adding complexity to repairs.

“Lines down in theory are easier to replace,” said Amy Pales, director of corporate communications and marketing for the utility. “Broken poles obviously add a complexity to things that just rehanging a wire does not have.”

Despite debris and damaged infrastructure, the number of customers still without power continued to decline Saturday.

“We are down to about 100 people out,” Pales said. “We still have about 30 separate outage places to fix, but we expect full restoration overnight tonight.”

Officials remind residents that even if most power has been restored; downed power lines remain dangerous. Anyone who encounters a fallen line should treat it as energized, keep a safe distance and report it to local authorities.