We Energies crews and lineworkers from across the Midwest are working nonstop to restore power to customers affected by multiple rounds of damaging storms and high winds, including a destructive tornado.
The company’s crews have restored power to more than 44,000 customers since the storms began moving across the state Monday, July 27.
Monday’s strong storms brought high winds and tornadoes that knocked down trees, damaged utility poles, and brought down electric lines, leading to widespread outages. In the Fox Valley, crews are finding catastrophic damage after a tornado ripped through several areas taking out power and causing multiple natural gas emergencies. Significant damage has also been reported in Kenosha County and Milwaukee County.
All available crews will continue working as quickly and safely as possible until power and natural gas service is fully restored. We expect 90% of storm-impacted electric customers will have power restored by Tuesday night, some of the hardest-hit areas may take longer because of the extent of damage.
Separately, before the storms hit, about 18,000 customers in Milwaukee lost power due to damaged equipment at a We Energies substation. Crews spent hours Monday replacing equipment and working to get power restored.
Customers can find the latest estimated restoration time for their outage on the We Energies outage map online or mobile app.
Safety reminder
People who encounter a downed electric line should stay at least 25 feet away, and report the damage to We Energies or local law enforcement immediately. Always treat any downed wire as energized.
We know being without power is difficult, and we appreciate customers’ patience as crews work as quickly and safely as possible.