***Editor's note: This article was written prior to the severe weather event.***
Nearly 21,000 We Energies customers in Milwaukee lost power Monday after an equipment failure at a north-side substation knocked two major feeder lines offline, turning what might have been a brief inconvenience into a heat-related concern for families, pets and people who rely on electric medical equipment.
About 18,000 customers were still without power hours after the outage began early Monday morning. Monday evening, over 115,000 people were still without power in Southeast Wisconsin.
Crews are still working to determine what caused the failure.
Zakia Wells, who lives near the affected area, described the conditions inside her home.
“Yep, the power is out. My fans ain’t working. The air conditioner isn’t working,” Wells said.
Wells and Anthony Cole moved outside looking for any breeze they could find. Cole said the outage was affecting more than just comfort — his aunt relies on electric medical equipment.
"My auntie, she, she took a, a blood pressure, blood pressure thing like twice a week. She can't, she can't do that because it goes off of the, you know, the input in there. TV, no TV. You can't charge our phones. And it's just hot in the house," Cole said.
We Energies spokesperson Brendan Conway acknowledged the difficult timing of the outage.
"That said, we do have a plan in place for these types of things. We're working on that plan. Not great on a hot day today. We understand that," Conway said.
Rather than waiting for the damaged equipment to be repaired, crews were working to "bridge" customers onto other power lines.
At 20th and Vienna, Latricia King had been without power since 5 a.m. She said her home heated up quickly, and she noticed the heat affecting her two dogs.
"So I've never seen them move so slow. Like they're trying to conserve, you know, their energy, so I kind of just wet them up and got them some water and stuff like that," King said.
King left home to do DoorDash and stay cool. She had a message for other families still waiting for power.
"I mean, buckle down and know that you're not the only one going through it. And yeah, check on your loved ones. So yeah," King said.
By 2 p.m., some customers began getting power restored. We Energies said restoration times can change and customers should continue checking its outage map for updates.
We Energies provided the following tips for people experiencing power outages:
- Report your power outage and receive updates online or on their app
- Be prepared if the power goes out
- Follow them on social media
- Stay at least 25 feet away from downed lines
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