Utilities Working on Wind Outages

Area utilities have taken a beating from this week’s wind storm.

But they’re making a lot of progress getting people out of the dark.

Late this afternoon, about 2,000 UPPCO customers were still without power.

Electricity providers across the U.P. are having this problem.

The huge, sudden demand means work crews had to be summoned from long distances.

UPPCO vice president and general manager Keith Moyle says that means calling in crews from Indiana and Ohio to supplement UPPCO’s own people.

1,600 customers in the Ishpeming area are still without power.

Most of the others are in Iron River.

In UPPCO’s case, the Ishpeming area doesn’t mean Ishpeming itself.

Moyle says Republic is proving to be a trouble spot, as are Gwinn and the Dead River basin.

UPPCO’s goal is to get everyone’s power back on by tomorrow afternoon.

If you find any downed power lines, Moyle also asks that you stay away from them and call your electric company immediately.