Thousands Still Without Power In Eastern Wisconsin After Tuesday Storms

Tens of thousands of people across the eastern part of Wisconsin remain without power Thursday afternoon as We Energies undertakes what its president calls “the largest restoration in our company’s history.”

Tuesday’s storms left almost 127,000 customers without power. According to the We Energies Outage Tracker, 48,900 customers were still without power as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday, with the majority of the remaining outages being in Milwaukee County.

“We have mobilized literally a battalion of skilled men and women working around the clock on this restoration,” We Energies President Tom Metcalfe said in a statement posted to Twitter Wednesday.

But people throughout Wisconsin have taken to social media to voice their frustrations with the energy company. A Wauwatosa resident who goes by @MermaidOctopus on Twitter said many residents lacked the resources to buy new food or get hotel rooms, and that a “lack of communication, systems failures, and lack of upgrades to the grid have left people in terrible situations.”

Food in refrigerators and freezers in areas where the power has been out for 24 hours or more may not be safe, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In some parts of Milwaukee, downed trees line the roads.

The outages have forced many businesses and services to shut their doors temporarily. Multiple parts of the Milwaukee Library system, including the Center Street, Villard Square and Martin Luther King branches, were still closed Thursday due to the outages.

Residents looking to use the internet or charge their phones at the Milwaukee Public Library Atkinson Branch Thursday faced a wait to enter the building, which allowed a total of about 15 people inside at a time.

We Energies has not provided an estimate for when services across the state will be fully restored, though estimates for specific areas continue to be updated on the company’s outage tracker.

Amid a string of hot weather in the days since the outages began, the City of Milwaukee Health Department coordinated cooling sites across the area to provide relief to areas still without power. Some were still open as of Thursday afternoon. Highs in the days ahead will be in the upper 70s to low 80s.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ recommendations for hot weather include staying hydrated and staying inside during the hottest parts of the day.