As powerful winds swept through our region overnight, the number of We Energies customers without service across Wisconsin climbed.
The latest number on We Energies' outage map shows more than 11,000 customers without power across Wisconsin. About 6,000 of those customers are in the Milwaukee area.
We Energies said in a statementthey expect outages to be fixed by this weekend at the latest. As of Thursday evening they said they had restored power to more than 105,000 customers.
We Energies officials said during a press conference Thursday afternoon that power to 80 percent of affected customers has been restored. They hope that percentage will increase to 90 to 95 percent by midnight Friday - and hope power will be fully restored by Saturday.
You can check the We Energies outage map by clicking here.
Customers have several ways to report outages:
- The free We Energies mobile app
- Online at we-energies.com/OutageManagement
- Call 800-662-4797 and follow the automated prompts
The rare weather event meant a busy day of preparation for utility workers. We Energies said crews are ready to respond if and when the power goes out.
"The tough thing about this storm is it's such a wide area right now anticipated that we can't move a lot of resources to one specific area," Brendan Conway with We Energies stated. "We can throw hundreds and hundreds of people at a restoration effort."
- High Wind Warning Wednesday night: Damaging wind gusts up to 65 MPH possible
- Crews with We Energies on stand by to respond if power goes out
- Here is how to be prepared for tonight's rare wind, storm event
Milwaukee First Responders and emergency management agencies have also opened up an Emergency Operations center in downtown Milwaukee to manage Wednesday's incoming storm.
The group has also formed two task forces comprised of fire apparatus and We Energies crews that are stationed on the north and south sides of the county. They can respond to reports of downed lines caused by the storm.
