Indiana Michigan Power has restored power to more than 75% of about 16,000 customers who lost service as a result of this morning’s thunderstorm that knocked down a number of wires in southwest Michigan and the South Bend/Elkhart area.
About 500 I&M employees and contractors have been working throughout the day to restore power. The damaging storms knocked down more than 200 spans of wires and broke or damaged at least 20 poles.
At its peak, more than 11,000 customers were without power this morning. Additional outages occurred when the storm moved southwest from Michigan to South Bend/Elkhart to other areas I&M serves.
As of 5 p.m., about 3,500 customers remained without service. I&M expects to have service restored to more than 90% of affected customers by 11 p.m. tonight.
The storm that started early Tuesday in southwest Michigan hit the Muncie/Marion area hours later, causing additional damages. Fewer than 100 customers remain without power there as of 5 p.m. Times of restoration for those customers will be established for each customer.
I&M will continue to work into the night to get the lights back on for our customers. Crews will begin again early Wednesday to restore any customers who remain without power.
