U.S. storms cut power to 540,000 Midwest homes and businesses
XLU•Major outages by state
| State | Outages |
|---|---|
| Indiana | 267,344 |
| Illinois | 88,145 |
| Ohio | 87,963 |
| Kentucky | 21,222 |
| California | 14,665 |
| Total Out | 539,435 |
(Reporting by Pablo Sinha and Scott DiSavino; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Clarence Fernandez)
Utilities assess damage and restoration efforts
Indiana's hardest-hit utility was Northern Indiana Public Service Co, taking out services to about 258,885 homes and businesses, or about 55% of its roughly 468,000 customers in the state. NIPSCO is a unit of Indiana energy firm NiSource NI.N.
In a statement, the utility said it was assessing damage and would provide estimated restoration times when the task was complete, but warned that restoration could take days in some areas as the damage was extensive.
“There is widespread damage to electric infrastructure, including downed poles, power lines, and trees,” it added.
Duke Energy said it was pulling in 1,000 workers to restore power to more than 171,000 customers across Greater Cincinnati in Ohio over the past 24 hours.
“They'll work alongside our employees and contractors in Ohio and Kentucky to safely restore service for our customers as quickly as possible,” storm director Andy Cassidy said in a statement.
About 46,200 homes and businesses were without power, or about 6% of its roughly 768,281 customers in Ohio.
Other energy firms with power outages include units of Exelon EXC.O, and American Electric Power Co AEP.O.
