UPDATE: At 8pm: Just over 8,000 customers remain without power across Southeastern Wisconsin, as nearly 95% of WE Energies customers now have power. Spokesman Brendan Conway says that the hardest hit areas of Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties will have power restored the first part of Monday, as some areas require special crews.
UPDATE: at 4:30 p.m, WE Energies reports power has returned to over 70,000 customers, as just over 11,100 customers remain without power across all of southeastern Wisconsin.
UPDATE: At 2:00 p.m., the number of customers without power is 11,544.
Original Story: Tens of thousands of We Energies customers are without power Sunday morning. As of 10:15 a.m on Sunday, June 25, We Energies’ outage map reported 38,562 customers dealing with power outages.
We Energies spokesperson Brendan Conway joined Wisconsin’s Weekend Morning News and said overnight storms and winds were the culprit.
“This rain moved through and behind it was this weird wind event,” he said. “You saw winds of up to 40 miles per hour in some areas, so it caused a bunch of scattered outages.”
Conway estimated that around 80,000 people total lost power at some point due to this event. He said that crews have already restored service for tens of thousands in Southeastern Wisconsin.
“What our crews are finding are trees that have come into contact with our power equipment and tree branches as well,” Conway said. “That’s really the big issues we’ve been dealing with this morning.”
Conway provided WTMJ with photos of the damage sustained in the storm in West Allis and Glendale:
Crews from across the state are joining the effort in addition to the We Energies personnel already deployed, including electric and forestry crews. when power lines are damaged or destroyed, Conway says it takes several hours to clear the tree, replace the pole, and restring the power line before they can return the pole to service.
“Now it’s just a matter of getting to everybody, getting to the outages, and getting the power back on,” Conway said.
Conway encouraged anyone whose power is out to report the outage to We Energies, saying there’s no guarantee the company knows your power is out. He also warned people to stay at least 25 ft. away from any downed power lines.
Visit We Energies’ outage map here to keep track of how many are without power. This is a developing story and will be updated with new information as it becomes available.