Midwest Storms Knock Out Power for Over 360,000 Customers
Severe storms across the US Midwest have left more than 360,000 homes and businesses without power, with Indiana the hardest hit.
Severe thunderstorms sweeping across the US Midwest have left more than 360,000 homes and businesses without electricity, according to data from PowerOutage.us. The outages, reported on Friday, have prompted restoration efforts from multiple utilities in the affected states.
Indiana has been the hardest-hit state, accounting for over 215,000 of the total outages. This represents roughly 6.6% of the state's approximately 3.3 million customers. The Northern Indiana Public Service Co (NIPSCO), a unit of NiSource, has been the most affected utility, with about 199,000 customers impacted—nearly 43% of its customer base in the state.
NIPSCO has stated that it expects to restore power to approximately 90% of its affected customers by August 18, with full restoration anticipated by August 21. Meanwhile, Illinois has reported over 58,000 outages, with Commonwealth Edison being the hardest-hit utility there. The company says it has already restored power to more than 92% of customers affected by this week's storms and aims to have power back for 99% of the remaining customers by Saturday evening.
In Ohio, Duke Energy has made significant progress, restoring power to nearly 223,000 customers in the Greater Cincinnati area—about 85% of the outages there. The state still has roughly 23,000 homes and businesses without power. Other states reporting significant outages include California and Kentucky.
Weather forecasters warn that another cluster of thunderstorms is expected to develop on Saturday across parts of the Midwest and Ohio Valley, bringing the risk of damaging winds, flooding rainfall, and further disruptions to outdoor activities.