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First Snow Kills 2 Knocks Out Power

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Conditions from the first winter storm of the season has been blamed for an accident that killed two people on the highway and knocked out power to thousands more today.

After some six straight hours of snowfall…oftentimes heavy and wet snow…power losses began to mount for Indiana Michigan Power Company with more than 7,500 households and businesses without power between Michigan and Indiana. Berrien County was hardest hit following a couple of inches in the first measurable snowfall of the season on Sunday, December 4, 2016.

By 8:30pm, I&M outage maps showed 2,722 customers impacted in Berrien County alone by the storm, more than the entire total reported thus far in all Indiana counties served by the utility. The outages were scattered with some losses in St. Joseph, Benton Harbor and outlying areas as well. Cass County reported 1,851 customers without power, and Grant County, Indiana had some 1,245 without power and Elkhart County just over 650 losses.

Shortly before nightfall, a brilliant, pulsating blue flash lit up the sky in Royalton Township, and customers reported dimming lights, flickering lights, power surges, brief outages followed by return of service and in some cases, just total loss of power. Some customers lost and regain power up to five times within a 10-minute period at nightfall.

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Traffic reports from I-94 showed slick conditions through much of the afternoon from the heavy, wet flakes in this first measurable storm, and wintry conditions on M-40 in Van Buren County left two people dead in a collision between a passenger car and a pickup between 94th Avenue and Shaw Road south of Lawton. That incident ended up closing M-40 in the area for an extended period of time, but the road has since been re-opened.

Weather forecasters reported that another inch or two of snow is expected through 11pm Sunday night before the snow tapers off, and temperatures are expected to hover around freezing or perhaps a degree or two below freezing. The National Weather Service reports that slush covered  roads may last into the Monday morning commute, especially for secondary roads that see less traffic. The storm total snowfall was generally expected to range from 1 to 4 inches with some of the hardest hit areas picking up 4 to 6 inches total for the storm. 

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