No priority given when restoring power, even for customers with medical conditions

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Indiana Michigan Power said Tuesday it does not give priority to anyone when restoring a customer's power.  That includes people who heavily rely on electricity for medical equipment because of a health condition.

I&M spokeswoman, YaVonda Ulfig said the company can't guarantee anyone they'll get power restored first because of the amount of damage Fort Wayne and the surrounding area received.

"Typically we don't guarantee priority restoration," she said.  "What we've been encouraging is neighbors and family members to do is check on those who might be in that condition. 

"Whenever a customer provides us with information about their medical status, for example being life support dependent, we use that information to help them.  We try to provide them with resources that are available to them."

On Tuesday, I&M called customers who had told the company about their medical history.  Of the customers who answered, some said they never lost power, some said they already got it back, and others wanted to know when it would come back on.

Ulfig said the company wasn't able to make those phone calls right away because it needed to assess how much damage there was.

"We were making sure we had some kind of plan in place to get as many customers restored as possible," she said.  "We moved through the restoration process and saw that things might take a little longer than expected.  We realized it was going to be important for us to reach out to these customers and make sure they are okay."

Curtis Wight lives off of Illinois Road in Fort Wayne.  His house has been without power since the storm hit last Friday.  Two of his children have asthma, and his wife, Teresa, has Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), which is a type of heart condition.

"There's no way to stay in a house that's 95 degrees during the day," Wright said Tuesday afternoon.

Wright and his family had returned home to check on their house and pick some things up before returning to the hotel they've been staying in.  The family has not slept under its own roof since the power went off.

The family is using a generator to power the refrigerator and has been sleeping at a hotel. 

Wright said he knows other people in the area have it worse, and need the electricity more than his family.  Which is why he'd like to see customers with a medical condition get moved to the top of a list when it comes to determining who has their power turned on first.

"It's very simple now days to get emails, faxes, scan documents from a doctor," Wright said.  "That says, this person has this type of condition, put them to the top of the list and get service back to them,"

Ulfig said I&M continuously looks at ways to improve how it restores large outages to its customers.