Noble REMC to work through the night

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Line crews for Noble REMC will be working through the night to restore electricity to the more than one thousand customers who are still without power.

Crews were making significant headway when ice started falling causing lines to gallop, creating further outages and damage. 

“We don’t expect all services to be fully restored until Thursday,” said Noble REMC spokesman John English.  We have brought in outside crews from Steuben County REMC and Whitewater Valley in southeast Indiana to work through the night with our crews, he said.

I&M is also working to restore power to more than 194 of its customers in Noble County.  Earlier on Tuesday, I&M didn't have any outages in Noble County.  A spokesperson for the utility was unsure what was to blame for the new outages.

Crews are working to restore power and other REMC crews will help in the process.  No estimate of when power will be fully restored has been given.  A real time map of outages can be found at www.nobleremc.com.

Northeastern REMC reports that at of 10 a.m. Wednesday, all but approximately 300 members had power.

According to Northeastern, the combination of high winds and wet snow, which built up to three inches around some power lines, created more damage throughout western Whitley County  than the ice storm of 2008.  Most of the restoration work focused on replacing broken poles and downed power lines.

Crews will continue working today until all members have electricity. They hope to have all services restored by mid-afternoon.

KREMC estimated about 3,000 homes were without power at the peak of the storm. By 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, crews had restored power to about 1,000 homes.

Crews are working into the morning to restore power to remaining customers. KREMC said in a release that most of the outages are in the Claypool area.

Power outages were caused mainly by the heavy snow, and a downed feed from NIPSCO. KREMC does not know when power will be completely restored.