EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Dec. 16, 2021-4:30 p.m.) – Despite relentless winds and dropping temperatures, Xcel Energy crews made significant progress today restoring power to customers after a line of severe thunderstorms, high winds and one confirmed tornado hit Wisconsin last night causing extensive damage to trees, poles and power lines.
Since Wednesday night, around 37,800 customers experienced an outage and in the last 16 hours, nearly 83% of those customers have had their power restored. As of 4 p.m. about 6,600 customers remain without power. More than 700 separate jobs were created by this weather event.
Xcel Energy knows losing power is hard and we appreciate customers’ understanding, patience and kindness as our crew members work to restore power. Crews have been responding as safely as possible to repair damaged infrastructure, and we expect to have many customers restored by tomorrow night, however, there could be a few remaining outages that persist until early Saturday morning.
When it comes to restoring power, top priority is given to situations that threaten public safety, such as live downed wires. Repair priority is based on what will restore power to the largest number of customers most quickly, such as transmission lines or feeder lines that serve large amounts of customers.
Visit https://www.xcelenergy.com/outages_and_emergencies to find the number of customers currently affected.
Xcel Energy urges safety and caution
Please use caution when traveling in affected areas and stay away from downed lines. Contact Xcel Energy at 1-800-895-1999 to report downed lines or natural gas leaks. Call 911 to report an emergency.
