bad storm

Some 70,000 customers were without electrical power today as a result of a storm producing 80 mph winds Tuesday night, We Energies reported. However, that number is expected to be trimmed by 20,000 or so by this evening and 95% of the affected customers are expected to have power back by Friday morning.

Crews from Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Madison were called in to aide local crews working to restore power, said We Energies spokesman Richard Cieslak, who added that it could take several days for all the power to be restored.

At its peak, 103,000 customers were without power, the second worst event in the utility's history, Cieslak said. In 1998, a storm left 148,000 customers without power.

Unlike most storms, the outages were largely due to utility poles being downed or broken tree branches hitting wires. The delay is the result of a number of individual lines being downed rather than a something like single transformer being hit by lightning, a relatively easy fix that would restore a whole street or neighborhood. Workmen may have to go house to house to make repairs, something that could take days.

100,000 people out of power
70,000 stil out by the next morning
down to 50,000 after 24 hours
That leaves 50,000 people who might not have power back until friday, and 5000 who still might not have power by then.

A coworker is trying to find a generator, but they've all been shipped to the hurricane region.