Power outages from Thursday’s storms stretched into the weekend for some residents. Indiana Michigan Power says damage from fallen trees in the South Bend and Elkhart areas took additional time to address.
I&M shared a video Saturday, showing crews working on a pole that was nearly broken in two by an uprooted tree. Ethan Fitzgerald with Epp-lectric made the trip from Kentucky.
"We’ve got a big tree on a line here that’s broke the pole, knocked the wire down," Fitzgerald explained in the video. "We’re going to have to ground this line and get this tree off here."
In a separate video Saturday, Elkhart County Emergency Management Director Jennifer Tobey said she’d heard from residents concerned about a lack of power, but she felt the utility companies were doing what they could.
"Kudos to AEP and NIPSCO," Tobey said. "They worked all night last night. You look behind me, this is one of three places that I know about where these folks have come in from all over the United States, just to help our county, and that is awesome."
As of Saturday afternoon, Indiana Michigan Power still reported almost 14,000 customers without electricity. It expected power to be restored by Saturday night. NIPSCO’s outage map showed almost 28,000 outages.
