Crews working to restore power outages

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Wednesday morning's heavy snowfall and strong winds have left thousands of customers without power. From downed lines to blown transformers, utility crews are working non-stop to keep up.



The heavy snow and cold temperatures caused power line switches to freeze.

"They're jammed up, and they wouldn't close all the way. So, you have a real issue up there with power," said Dustin Lowry, a transmission line mechanic.



He's just one of many working to restore power to Michiana residents.



"You have this one pole, and that's your whole problem. So, you go to change that and sometimes it can open up a whole new set of problems that you have to work on," said Lowry.



In addition to frozen switches, utility companies are having problems with downed trees and galloping power lines. That happens when the wind shakes frozen lines too fast for them to keep up.



"It's just so heavy. Our equipment is not used to all that weight. And so, yea, it definitely takes a toll on it," said Lowry.



Crews will be working late into the night working to restore power.



"We try our best to prevent it from happening and do our best to put it back up when the problems occur," said Lowry.



Crews don't have an exact estimate on when all the power will be restored but they are working as fast as they can.