I & M Electric has issued a detailed update Wednesday night, covering its efforts to restore power in Southwest Michigan and Northern Indiana:
All substations affected by Tuesday morning’s flood have been restored. However, some customers may be without service due to damage from last night or this afternoon’s storms. As of 8:30 p.m. tonight, 6,400
customers in Southwest Michigan are without power.
Three different severe storm systems over the past three days have unleashed heavy rain, lightning and strong wind gusts across Indiana and Southwest Michigan, and caused more than 39,000 Indiana
Michigan Power (I&M) customers to lose power. As of 8:30 p.m., there are approximately 27,000 I&M customers without service. A majority of those affected are in the Elkhart area, where more than 15,000
customers are impacted.
The first storm Monday/Tuesday caused
17,000 customers to lose power; the second
wave Tuesday/Wednesday affected 27,000
customers at peak, and the third storm this
afternoon peaked at 39,000 customer
outages.
Damage from today’s storms included 29
broken poles, 17 damaged transformers and
20 broken pole crossarms.
Ahead of severe weather this evening, a
contingent of 1,000 workers are in place to
respond and restore any additional outages.
I&M employees and contractors will be
assisted by additional personnel from AEP
Ohio, Appalachian Power Company and the
Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO),
I&M’s sister companies. These crews consist
of line workers, damage assessors, tree
crews, meter specialists, and contractors.
ESTIMATED TIMES OF RESTORATION (ETRs):
Below are the estimated times of restorations. However, another line of storms is forecast to hit this evening, which may hinder restoration efforts or cause additional outages.
90% of Southwest Michigan customers are estimated to be restored by 10 p.m. tomorrow
(Thursday) night.
90% of Fort Wayne and South Bend areas are estimated to be restored by 10 p.m. tomorrow
(Thursday) night.
Elkhart’s estimated time of restoration is not determined yet. We expect to have an estimate
established tomorrow morning.
