Power celebration short-lived after second storm

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Just a few hours after Julie McComb got power back at her north side home Thursday, another storm knocked it right back out.

"It was another night of make do, sleep with no air, sleep without everything," McComb said.

A pop-up storm Thursday night knocked power out to around 10,000 people around Fort Wayne. Indiana Michigan Power was in the home stretch of restoring power to around 78,000 people who lost it in Friday's storm.

"We were ahead of the estimate for complete restoration when this second storm came through," David Mayne from Indiana Michigan Power said. "It certainly knocks the wind out of your sails a little big, but you just sigh and recommit yourself to restoring service because that's what we do."

McComb's power was restored, again, around 10 a.m. Friday.

"Been doing two loads of laundry, got beef noodles cooking, got a little milk, the stuff I have not had," she said. "But I'm not going to lie. I'm a nervous wreck [that it might go out again]. If the wind blows will something happen? Will something come loose? It's down to almost 80 degrees in here, which is the coolest it's been in seven days if you can believe that. I'm on pins and needles but for now I'm enjoying every second of it."

Mayne hopes Mother Nature doesn't deal any more set-backs.

"When we make repairs, we don't duct tape anything. We don't make temporary repairs. If a pole needs to be replaced, we put in a new pole. When you get winds with this intensity, we saw whole trees blown over, the same things can happen to utility poles," Mayne said.

As of 3 p.m., 3,600 I&M customers were without power. Complete restoration from both storms is now estimated to be done by late Sunday night.