(Bridgman, MI) - After unprecedented flooding damaged a Bridgman substation yesterday, affecting three other area substations and more than 14,000 customers, I&M crews worked up to 16-hour shifts to restore power as quickly as possible.
Late last evening, shortly after work was completed to power the three stations that were not flooded, a secondary round of severe storms struck, hampering restoration efforts and causing additional outages.
As of 8:00 AM today, more than 26,000 customers were without power due to both rounds of storms. Outage numbers will continue to fluctuate throughout the day as additional storms move through the area and crews continue to make repairs.
Some customers in the Lakeside and New Buffalo areas were restored last night, but due to the second round of severe storms that through, their service was disrupted again. Heavy rain, strong winds, and lightning in the area caused additional outages that left many customers without power through the night.
I&M employees and contractors are responding to all outages from the storms Monday night/Tuesday morning and the storms that moved through last night/this morning.
I&M crews from Muncie are heading north to assist, and external assistance crews from AEP Ohio, Appalachian Power, and contract companies are also heading there. Approximately 350 energy personnel are responding to get the lights back on for all our customers.
I&M is prioritizing restoring power to those affected by the first round of storms while diligently assessing the damage, responding to hazards/downed wires, and restoring power from the new outages. I&M encourages customers to use the Indiana Michigan Power app to report and monitor the status of an outage affecting your home or business IndianaMichiganPower.com/App.