MADISON (WKOW) -- A spokesperson for Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) says it could take multiple days to restore power to the tens of thousands of customers who lost service after Tuesday night's severe storms.
Corporate Communications Manager Steve Schultz says more than 250 separate outages impacted more than 42,000 customers, making it one of the largest outages in MGE history. By 7 a.m. Wednesday, that number was down to about 25,000 customers.
"With daybreak arriving, our damage assessment teams will be able to better assess the extent of storm damage," Schultz said in an email Wednesday morning. "Widespread damage from this storm includes numerous broken poles, downed trees, branches and wires. It often takes the majority of a workday to repair one broken pole."
Schultz said MGE crews will work throughout the day Wednesday to restore service as quickly and safely as possible. He said there is not an estimated restoration time for customers who lost service, but this is expected to be a multi-day effort. Schultz said impacted customers should plan to be without power for multiple days.
MGE is now reaching out to mutual assistance groups in an effort to secure additional crews to help with restoration efforts.
If you need to report an outage, call MGE at (608) 252-7111 or 1-800-245-1123.
You can check MGE's Outage Map by clicking here.
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