Northeast Wisconsin’s power outages now under 50K, crews making ‘significant’ progress
(WFRV) – The Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) and We Energies have been busy at work since Tuesday, and while thousands are still without power after the most recent snowstorm, crews are making ‘significant progress’ in the widespread outage.
As reported earlier, outages reached over 100,000 customers on Wednesday, but that has changed, and the number is now below 45,000.
Going through a power outage? Follow these tips on how to stay safe and be prepared
As of 3:20 p.m., WPS reports 36,569 customers are without power, with 1,433 outages reported, while We Energies says 7,742 customers are out of service with 270 outages.
Both companies provided statements on Thursday, aiming for the number of impacted customers with restored power to be 95% or above by either Thursday or Friday night.
“WPS crews have restored power to more than 80,000 customers affected by the storm. WPS expects 97% of impacted customers will have power restored by the end of Friday, with the rest restored, or a crew assigned, by Saturday,” a statement from WPS on Thursday afternoon read.
NE Wisconsinites coping with more than 24 hours without power
Whereas We Energies officials said on Thursday morning that they also have restored power to more than 80,000 customers, with a goal of 95% by the end of Thursday.
WPS also noted its more than 300 technicians from across Wisconsin and the Midwest working non-stop on this restoration effort. “These crews are repairing significant damage from the storm, including more than 1,500 reports of damaged utility poles, downed power lines, and large trees and tree limbs falling onto electric equipment,” WPS officials said.
This brings the total number of customers affected in northeast Wisconsin to 44,311, with 1,703 active outages reported as of 3:20 p.m. on April 4.
