A long weekend without electricity is coming to an end for many Northwoods communities hit hard by a vicious Friday afternoon storm. At one point Friday, tens of thousands of customers were without power, but crews worked through the night to bring back the power.
Sunday morning, more than 8,000 Wisconsin Public Service customers mainly in Oneida and Vilas counties were still in the dark.
WPS spokesperson Lisa Prunty said many crews worked all day Sunday, and near dark, less than 1,000 customers were without power, and Prunty said crews would work through the night to get the last remaining customers back on line. She says more broken poles and more power lines entangled in trees and debris were found which slowed down restoration. The majority of the crews on Sunday worked in the Minocqua and Eagle River areas.
More than 115 WPS crews and an additional 86 contractor crews and numerous support staff were working on getting the juice back on by this morning.
