PLAINFIELD, Indiana — Duke Energy is rushing 730 extra workers to help restore power after storms hit southern Indiana. More than 95,000 lost power during the storm. Some 52,000 customers still had no power as of the morning of Thursday, June 26.
The damage was centered around Terre Haute in Vigo County and Bloomington in Monroe County. Winds from the storms reached up to 70 miles per hour.
Repairs started when the storms passed, but crews are still assessing the scope of the damage. Duke warns that extended outages are possible in the hardest-hit areas. Monroe County, in particular, could have longer outages due to rougher terrain. The company will provide updates and time estimates as their assessments wrap up.
“We have brought in more than 730 additional resources – linemen, damage assessors and tree clearing workers – to supplement our statewide workforce and speed power restoration,” Duke Energy Indiana President Stan Pinegar said. “We’re also moving crews from areas less affected to those hardest hit. Our priority is always to restore service as quickly and safely as possible, and we appreciate our customers’ patience while we respond.”
The company has been dealing with broken poles, trees in power lines and spans of wire down. In addition, several elements of the power transmission system were damaged in the storm. The company called them the "power highways" between power generation stations and customers.
Depending on the damage, crews could be repairing power to individual homes or entire neighborhoods. Click here to see how Duke restores power after storms.