MILWAUKEE — Thousands of We Energies customers lost power Tuesday evening as a winter storm barreled through southeast Wisconsin.
As of just after 10 P.M., just over 1,400 customers were without power. The most outages were located in Brookfield (311 customers), West Bend (290), New Berlin (150), Menomonee Fall (109) and Port Washington (103). There were as many as over 10,000 customers without power earlier in the evening.
In Brookfield, one neighborhood showed just how fickle Mother Nature can be. Near Rolling Meadow Drive and Bonnie Lane, the coziest of houses were aglow with light and warmth. However, directly across the street, home after home in darkness. Neighbors tell TMJ4 News, the power went out around 3:00 p.m. and by 10:00 p.m., the power was still out with no end in sight.
"The biggest thing that causes outages in the winter is heavy, wet snow," Brendan Conway with We Energies said. "It can get on the limbs and on the branches and take those into our power lines."
It's not just the limbs that take down power lines. It's occasionally people too. We Energies provided a photo of a power pole that was swiped by a vehicle, knocking power out.
In an interview with TMJ4 early Tuesday, Conway with We Energies says the utility is fully prepared for today's storm, and has put in extra resources to make sure crews can respond to any outages as quickly as possible. Crews are working around the clock to restore power, but Conway says more issues may be on the way with the forecast expected this week.
"We're hearing there are going to be some pickup of some wind and that also could cause some issues knocking down trees and those types of things," Conway said.
If you lose power in your home or business, you can report a power outage to We Energies here.
Tuesday's winter storm is projected to drop up to 8 inches of wet, heavy snow in inland areas, and 1-4 inches of snow near Lake Michigan.
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