Severe storm repairs could take ‘multi-day effort’

Indianapolis, Indiana – As of Friday morning, thousands of houses and customers still lack electricity as a result of storms that blew across Indiana on Thursday afternoon.

Some consumers’ wait time for power restoration could be days.

According to the National Weather Service, the storm front had wind gusts of up to 70 mph. As the storm moved across central Indiana, numerous lightning strikes were also seen.

After experiencing severe weather on Thursday that included heavy winds and lightning, AES Indiana stated they are maintaining their storm plan and concentrating on restoration efforts to work to restore power to customers affected. The utility firm reported that as of early Friday morning, 80,000 people were without power. That figure had increased steadily by the storm’s peak.

Over 100,000 outages were reported by Duke Energy in western and central Indiana.

Crews will work to restore substantial damage to electrical lines and equipment as more crews and contractors have been enlisted.

As of 8 p.m., AES reports that more than 23,000 occurrences have been reported across its service area in Indiana. Thursday This can require several days of work depending on how badly the lighting and fallen trees have damaged the area.

AES Indiana is keeping an eye out for the possibility of further severe weather. Customers may face prolonged outages due to the additional storms that are forecast for central Indiana, so it is advised that they prepare an emergency backup plan. On the AES website, customers can access safety and outage advice.

The following calls were received on Thursday, according to the Indianapolis Fire Department:

• 104 Power Lines Down
• 24 Transformer/Utility Pole investigations
• 20 EMS Related Incidents
• 12 Residence Fire investigations
• 10 Tree Fires
• 9 Vehicle Accidents
• 8 Stuck Elevators
• 7 Building Alarms
• 3 Collapse Runs