Electricity for some out until Saturday

Some Monroe County residents who lost power when the remnants of Hurricane Ike swept through the area this weekend could be without electricity until Saturday.

Duke Energy officials blamed the delay on the number of customers effected.

Since 9:17 a.m. Sunday, a total of 34,213 people were without power at some point in Monroe County, according to the Duke Energy Web site.

As of Monday evening, about 6,000 Monroe County residents were still without power.

“The higher the case load, the more customers we have that are impacted, and that’s why it’s taking longer to bring Bloomington back,” said Dawn Horth, manager of community development for Duke Energy.

Maxwell Terrace resident and senior Gracia Gillund has been without power since Sunday and has contacted Duke Energy twice to ask about estimates as to when she should expect electricity back in her apartment. The first time she was told within two to five days, and the second time she was told it could be as late as Saturday, she said.

“It’s a great inconvenience and completely annoying,” she said. “But there’s people who have it worse.”

Compared to surrounding counties, Monroe had the highest number of outages throughout the duration of the storm and throughout its aftermath, according to the Duke Energy Web site.

“This may be the most significant storm our company has ever experienced in Indiana in terms of the number of customers affected at the peak,” said Duke Energy Indiana President Jim Stanley in a press release. “I also can’t recall another storm where we’ve had so many individual cases of trouble, which makes power restoration slow-going.”

Stanley said many of the outages were caused by trees or branches falling into power lines. Street crews in Bloomington were out clearing limbs from roadways for much of the day Sunday, said John Langley, deputy director of utilities for the City of Bloomington.

Sunday’s initial power outage also forced many area establishments to close early that afternoon.

Keri Jackson, assistant manager of Chili’s Grill & Bar on Third Street, said power at the restaurant flickered all afternoon, resetting computers the employees use to place orders until the power went out for more than two hours at about 4:45 p.m.

The power came back on for a brief 15 minutes after this outage, during which time several patrons as well as a party of 25 people walked into the restaurant, Jackson said. Just after everyone was seated inside, the power went out again for the remainder of the night.

“Everyone was really nice and very understanding, which is all that you can ask for in those situations,” she said.

Power was restored at Chili’s and many other businesses in time for opening on Monday, but the residents not so lucky are rearranging much of their lives until the lights turn back on.

“I have to find somewhere to go to shower, to use the computer,” Gillund said. “I basically stay with my friends so I can get my work done and stay with my classes.”