A powerful storm that swept across Lake Michigan on Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 3, disrupted power to nearly 11,000 Indiana Michigan Power customers, causing heavy damage and numerous outages in southwest Michigan. As the storm continued across northern Indiana into early

evening it diminished in strength, causing fewer outages in the South Bend/Elkhart area.

I&M crews quickly began responding to outages and as of 10 p.m. have restored power to more than 60% of the customers who lost service as a result of the storm.

Crews continue to work tonight, and 250 mutual assistance personnel from other utilities and I&M business partners are headed to southwest Michigan to join in restoration Thursday morning.

OUTAGE COUNTS

As of 10 p.m., about 4,300 customers were without service. Approximate outage counts for the following areas were:

Benton Harbor area: 600

Buchanan area: 1,150

Three Rivers area: 2,250

South Bend: 300

South Bend customers should be restored by 6 p.m. on Thursday. Southwest Michigan customers should be restored by 11 p.m. on Thursday.