MILWAUKEE — After Tuesday night’s storm, thousands in Milwaukee County were still without power in their homes Wednesday, and left to deal with the heat.
We Energies restored power to more than 100,000 customers from Tuesday into Wednesday. Spokesperson Alison Trouy said this is one of the biggest outages the company has ever seen.
“Every storm is different but this is one of the largest restoration projects we’ve had in decades,” said Trouy. “It’s a massive outage, we’re seeing tons of damage to our system.”
As another storm system prepared to make its way in Wednesday, Trouy said that could impact restoration efforts.
“The next 24 hours are really going to be critical,” she said. “It really depends on what happens with the storm system, but if we do get hit hard again, that's really going to delay the restoration efforts.”
Terry Kreinuz of West Allis said she ended up without power in her home Tuesday night after a tree fell in her driveway. She added that she watered that tree for more than 20 years, but thankfully no one was hurt, and it fell just a few feet shy of collapsing on her car or home.
“We’re alright,” said Kreinuz. “Just kind of scared for the next batch.”
Her power was restored Wednesday, but that wasn’t the case for others.
Serena Sperry of Wauwatosa said her power was still out Wednesday afternoon, leaving her to deal with the high heat index.
“I work from home, so it's been really difficult,” said Sperry. “I have two cats, so I’m just trying to keep them hydrated and me hydrated, closing the shades, and doing whatever I can to keep cool for now.”
Trouy said if more power outages do occur, customers are encouraged to take advantage of resources like cooling down in a public library, the mall, or a cooling shelter.
“We understand that it's very frustrating to be without power, especially when it's so hot like this,” said Trouy. “We really appreciate your patience and know that we are working hard to restore power as soon as we can.”