WEDNESDAY, 4/3/2024, 8:37 p.m.
(WFRV) – Wisconsin Public Service has released a statement and an estimated time for the widespread power outages caused by the major snowstorm and wind storm that rocked northeast Wisconsin on Tuesday and Wednesday.
WPS Spokesperson Matt Cullen said they’ve restored power to more than 110,000 WPS and We Energies customers who lost power, and they’re expecting the vast majority of impacted customers to have their power restored by the end of the day tomorrow.
“We have an army of field crews, including technicians from across Wisconsin and hundreds of extra workers from across the Midwest working non-stop on our restoration efforts,” explained Cullen.
Customers can get the latest information on the estimated time of restoration for their outage on the WPS or We Energies outage map online.
WPS crews still working to determine timeline for widespread power outages in northeast Wisconsin
WEDNESDAY, 4/3/2024, 2:19 p.m.
(WFRV) – Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) remains hard at work repairing widespread power outages caused by heavy, wet snow and damaging winds.
WPS spokesperson Matthew Cullen caught up with Local 5 News to discuss what goes into restoring a widespread power outage, such as the one in northeast Wisconsin.
Cullen said crews have restored power for nearly 35,000 customers who were affected by the snowstorm, and WPS will be working around the clock to get those still affected back.
“All of our available crews are out, and they’re working to repair those outages as quickly and safely as they can,” said Cullen. “We’ve also brought in additional outside crews to assist us with making those repairs as we are seeing substantial damage.”
WPS says there have been over 800 reports of issues with utility poles, downed power lines, trees, and tree limbs that have fallen onto electric equipment.
Additionally, crews are still working to determine a specific timeline for when full power will be restored to all customers.
“An important thing to keep in mind is that we’ve had outages caused or created by heavy snow and strong winds that continue to move through our area throughout the day today, so our crews are working to address those new outages at the same time as they’re working to make repairs to outages that have occurred previously as well,” explained Cullen.
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Cullen concluded the interview, stating that WPS thanks all of its customers for their patience as this is a complex situation. Anyone who has an outage and has not reported the outage is encouraged to do so on WPS’s website.
As of 2:15 p.m., WPS reports just over 77,000 customers are without power, and there are just under 1,600 total outages throughout northeast Wisconsin.
