UDWI Issues statement to Customers Following Thursday's Storms

Local Sources- The Utilities District of Western Indiana REMC sent a message to their customers.

Utilities District of Western Indiana REMC would like to thank members for their patience as we work to assess damages and restore power as a result of the recent storm system. Lineman crews are out making repairs and working to restore power safely and efficiently. We also brought in outside assistance from two separate co-ops, and we thank those crews for their willingness to help as our crews have worked through the night and continue to be in the field.

At this time, we do not have estimated restoration times due to the number of outages. Please know we are working hard to get all members on as quickly as possible, while keeping our crews safe as they work in these conditions. The damage is extensive across our service territory, and we still have nearly 8,000 members without power.

Major substations are a primary cause of these outages, which are supplied by Duke Energy, and they are unable to give a restoration estimate at this time. We cannot get our system up and running in those areas until the ‘parent’ supplier has its system up and back up. We will let you know as soon as these substations are back on and operational.

We also have dozens of other weather-related outage incidents such as downed lines and poles system-wide affecting members that are being assessed and repaired as quickly as possible across our large membership area.

Our dispatch team is working hard to update the Outage Management System which has been overloaded throughout the night and some areas may be experiencing glitches. Members can report an outage by calling the UDWI office (812-384-4446), using the UDWI app (UDWI REMC in the App Store and Google Play Store), or via UDWI’s texting service (please visit the outage hub on our website to learn more). Social media continues to be monitored and we will post updates as they become available. Please know we are seeing and hearing your inquiries, however, due to the volume we may not be able to respond to all messages or comments immediately.

We share in your frustration as our employees, line crews, their families and our entire community feel the impact of this storm and many of us are still without power as well. Thank you again for your patience and understanding, and please be safe!