Thousands of We Energies customers remain without power after winter storm
CBS 58 MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- As the snow keeps piling up throughout Wisconsin following a Blizzard Warning, some people are waiting for the lights to come back on.
We're tracking hundreds of outages right now in Southeast Wisconsin. As of 3 p.m. March 16, there are 8,199 customers without power. The main cause we've seen for power outages is trees falling on power lines, leaving families throughout Southeast Wisconsin without power for hours or even days.
"I woke up hearing a big old explosion," shared Tarika Miller.
The big explosion that she and her kids heard at 1 a.m. on Monday was a tree falling onto a power line across the street.
"They were terrified because we all just jumped up and looked, like, what just happened? Wow! We were scared. But we got it together," she shared.
We Energies crews, about eight hours later, she said, arrived near 45th and Villard in Milwaukee to get power back to the two dozen customers.
In Wauwatosa, residents like Jake Anderson only had partial power for roughly 24 hours, after a tree damaged a power line near 86th and Melvina.
"Somebody did come out last night. Looked like they were trying to cut a tree limb, but [they] couldn't get it done," he shared. By midday Monday, power was back.
Residents are now left to shovel and re-stock their fridges. Miller said her refrigerator went out and now smells like old meat. Meanwhile, Anderson said they put some food outside to try to keep it cold, but it got "soggy and thawed out."
We Energies says since Friday morning, crews have restored power to roughly 170,000 customers.
"Times like this is when we need to look out for one another and check on our neighbors," Anderson said.
To get the latest information on the estimated time of restoration for your outage, click here. We Energies reminds you to stay at least 25 feet away from any downed wires and report the downed wire to We Energies or a local law enforcement agency right away.
