I&M continues to restore power in hard-hit areas

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) - Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) continues to restore power to the nearly 41,000 customers impacted by Monday’s derecho.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, June 16, I&M says three-quarters of the 41,000 customers who lost service have been restored, with more customers expected to be restored throughout today and tonight. Crews worked through Wednesday night and restored power to about 6,000 customers. Crews have identified nearly 340 broken or heavily damaged poles, more than 50 damaged transformers, and nearly 700 individual spans of downed wires.

I&M says more than 600 additional utility workers are helping to restore power as quickly and as safely as possible. Monday’s storm caused extensive damage in a number of areas, I&M says, particularly in Waynedale, southwest Fort Wayne, Tri-Lakes north of Columbia City, and portions of southwest Michigan.

I&M noted that it is “fully aware many customers still remain without power during stifling heat” and said about 600 additional workers are in town helping to restore power. Temperatures reached the high 90s on Tuesday and Wednesday in Allen County, with only a slight dip in the daily high anticipated for Thursday.

Crews say they are working to restore power throughout Fort Wayne by 11 p.m. tonight. Some customers, particularly in the hard-hit Waynedale area, could remain without power beyond that time. About 1,200 Avilla customers who remain without service -- primarily near Tri-Lakes and Churubusco -- should see power by 6 p.m. on Thursday.

Service has been restored in full to the Decatur area.

Monitoring the status of your outage at IndianaMichiganPower.com/App
Signing up for text and email alerts on the app or at IndianaMichiganPower.com/Alerts