Indiana Michigan Power has restored power to 80% of the nearly 20,000 customers who lost service Friday night and early Saturday as a result of the strong thunderstorms in southwest Michigan and northern Indiana.

Damage was heaviest in southwest Michigan. As crews continued restorations in the area throughout the day and into Saturday evening, they reported a total of 31 broken poles needing replacement, 11 damaged poles needing repairs and at least 33 spans of wire down as a result of the storm.

ESTIMATED RESTORATION TIMES (ETRs)

Estimated Times of Restoration have been established for customers impacted by the storms. Many customers will be restored before the listed times, as crews move from outage to outage to return power to all customers. ETRs for the affected areas are:

Michigan

Benton Harbor area: 75% of customers by 11 p.m. tonight and 100% by 11 p.m. Sunday

Three Rivers area: 85% of customers by 11 p.m. tonight and 100% by 3 p.m. Sunday

Buchanan area: Restored

Indiana

South Bend/Elkhart area: 11 p.m. tonight

Fort Wayne area: 95% are restored; 100% by noon Sunday

OUTAGE NUMBERS:.

As of 9 p.m., approximate outage numbers were:

Michigan Total Customer Outages: 3,900

Benton Harbor area: 3,000

Three Rivers area: 900

Indiana Total Customer Outages: 140

Fort Wayne area: 120

South Bend area: Less than 20

SAFETY INFO

Please pay attention to several safety precautions:

• Downed power lines. Stay away from any downed wires and report them to I&M. You can call us at 800-311-4634, report on our app or website, or call 911.

• Trees could fall or drop limbs at any moment, please look up.

• Standing water could hide debris or even downed wires.

• Roads will likely be wet, slick and covered with debris.

• Traffic lights may not be functioning. Please use caution and be mindful of first responders and utility workers on the roadways.

• Crews will be following all CDC guidelines on physical distancing and we urge the general public not to approach our crews.

• Temperatures and humidity levels remain high for this time of the year. We urge anyone working outside to look for signs of heat stress and take appropriate precautions at the first sign of heat-related fatigue.

STAY INFORMED

I&M encourages customers to use the Indiana Michigan Power app to monitor the status of any outage affecting your home or business. IndianaMichiganPower.com/App

You can sign up for text and email alerts on the app or at IndianaMichiganPower.com/Alerts

See the location and status of outages using our outage map at IndianaMichiganPower.com/OutageMap

For the latest updates please follow Indiana Michigan Power on Facebook and find us on Twitter @IN_MI_Power