Thousands Still Without Power

The work to restore electricity in many areas of Kosciusko County continues this morning because many areas of the county have been without electrical service for more than 30 hours.

Yesterday's rainy, cold temperatures left a thick coating of ice on power lines and trees.

Because of the extra weight, falling branches fell on electrical lines and the lines themselves snapped under the icy load.

Tens of thousands of northern Indiana residents who lost power Thursday face the prospect of a freezing, dark weekend.

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. and Kosciusko County REMC called for crews from other counties and from out of state, working around the clock to restore utility lines.

Rural areas of the county did not have power Thursday evening or this morning.

Much of Winona Lake had no power this morning as well as homes in North Webster. Tippecanoe Lake, Irish Lake and the Barbee chain of lakes as well as half of Dewart Lake were still without power today.

REMC CEO Lynn Collyer was disappointed the electric company personnel had not made the inroads they had hoped for yesterday.

"We still have several thousand customers out of power this morning," he said.

It wasn't for lack of trying, he said. Five additional crews were called in to assist the REMC regulars, who worked through the night. All 13 substations had to be restored to power. Part of the problem was a downed NIPSCO transmission line.

"Daylight will speed the process," Collyer said. "With so many trees and branches down, it takes an hour to repair things that should take minutes.

"I'm hopeful we'll have everything back on by evening, except for isolated individuals."

The American Red Cross set up emergency shelter and provisions in the Center Lake Pavilion for residents who wanted a warm place to sleep.

"People are afraid to leave their homes," said a volunteer at the pavilion.

Only one family took advantage of the shelter last night. The Red Cross will maintain the shelter until the power returns.

Throughout the state more than 77,000 northern Indiana homes and businesses were without power Thursday night, down from more than 93,000 earlier in the day.

A NIPSCO news release said because of extensive tree damage, some 12,000 customers may still experience power outages beyond this evening.

The outages stretched all the way from Valparaiso in the west to Angola in the east to Wabash in the south.

Most school districts in Kosciusko, St. Joseph, Elkhart, LaGrange, Noble and Steuben counties shut down for the day.

At Eisenhower Elementary school, Warsaw, the electricity went out at 6:30 a.m. this morning, according to Dr. Lee Harman, Warsaw Schools superintendent.

Silver Lake Elementary School didn't have sufficient power for heating, he said. Once notified, NIPSCO crews restored power to the buildings quickly.

"It was unexpected, but we have worked through it and we're back and running. Everything was up, 100 percent normal by about 10 this morning," Harman said.

If children are absent or tardy because of the power outages or other weather-related reasons, the absence will be excused, Harman said.

Service to school buildings has taken priority over residential areas. Families with infants and small children and the elderly had to fend for themselves through the night and into this morning.

Fire departments were kept busy during and after the ice storm.

Luckily, no major fires were reported during the storm.

"Pretty much (it was) tree limbs on fire and power lines (on houses)," said Warsaw Fire Chief Matt Warren Thursday afternoon.

He said when the limbs fell off the trees, they knocked down the power lines, too.

Syracuse full-time dispatcher Jerry Curry said Syracuse Fire Department responded to the same type of calls - transformers on fire, limbs down.

"That's all it was. No major fires. We were lucky," Curry said.

Residents who have been basking in mild temperatures earlier in the week are preparing for cold weekend conditions.

Cold air began moving into the state this morning with overnight low temperatures expected to dip into the mid-teens to lower 20s in northern Indiana Friday and Saturday, according to National Weather Service estimates.

Cloudy conditions are forecast Sunday, with a chance of snow in northern areas.