Powerful weekend winds; no power for 40 hours for some customers

After powerful weekend winds, Monday, Nov. 7 was a much better day for cleaning up. At the same time, We Energies crews are working to get power restored to all who lost it.

MILWAUKEE - After powerful weekend winds, Monday, Nov. 7 was a much better day for cleaning up. At the same time, We Energies crews are working to get power restored to all who lost it.

Winds upwards of 60 miles an hour ripped parts of southeast Wisconsin this past weekend. Power poles were snapped – and power lines were downed. That left thousands in southeast Wisconsin in the dark.

"You’re preparing for Thanksgiving. And here you have food that’s spoiled that you’re going to maybe live off of for a couple months. But then all of sudden everything is spoiled, and you got to throw it out," said Rita Johnson, whose power was finally restored Monday morning.

Rita Johnson

Johnson said it is hard to understand why it took so long for the power to come back to her northwest Milwaukee neighborhood.

"Assumed my service would be back up, probably no later than four hours -- eight hours at the max," Johnson said.

But it turned out to be closer to 40 hours without power.

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"Well, I’m glad that my service is on – for one thing – but I just never want to go through that again," Johnson said.

Forestry crews worked to cut away trees from power lines in Menomonee Falls and Elm Grove on Monday. We Energies said patience, plus time and effort, is needed for this type of repair. By Monday afternoon, We Energies officials said 83,000 customers had their power back.

"We’re going to get to everybody today – but we do appreciate everyone’s patience," said Brendan Conway, We Energies spokesperson.

Brendan Conway

Johnson's patience is not completely run out.

"I thank you for your service, and for turning my service back on this morning. Even though it was a rough weekend for me," Johnson said.

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Johnson just hope there is not a repeat of this in the near future.

By they way, Johnson was playing host to her young nieces and nephews this weekend. The power outage made that visit interesting to say the least.