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Crews trying to complete power restoration after Wednesday’s storm suffered setbacks Friday, as new outages occurred.
Early Friday, Upper Peninsula Power Company estimated the number of customers without service at around 1,200. By evening, that total had risen to around 2,300. Most of the new outages occurred in Marquette County.
Officials didn’t specify what caused the new outages. Frequently, such failures occur when trees or limbs weakened by the type of heavy, wet snow we received on Wednesday give way, and collapse into power lines.
As of 11:00 Friday night, the largest outage in the Copper Country was a group of about 130 customers in the Jacobsville area. Around 1,200 customers were dark in Marquette County, and 400 in Alger County. Many small outages of 30 or fewer customers also remain across UPPCO’s service area.
UPPCO officials said that crews were continuing to work through the night, with fresh teams scheduled to arrive from Wisconsin this morning to assist in the effort.
Follow the UPPCO Twitter feed here.
Ontonagon County REA has issued no updates about service outages or repair efforts.
Another winter storm is expected to hit the region tonight. Heaviest snowfall amounts are expected to track well south of the Keweenaw, closer to the Wisconsin border.
