UPDATE: SEI REMC, Duke Energy Have Thousands Without Service

State Road 1 and State Road 101 in southeastern Indiana are closed by downed trees and power lines.

Ice accumulation on a fence. Photo submitted by @Dani_raenee19, Twitter.

Update published at 4:29 p.m.:

Southeastern Indiana REMC says more than 7,000 member are still without power. 

SEI REMC said in a Facebook post that crews and contracted crews, and crews from four other REMC's working hard to restore power.

The crews will work until 11:00 p.m. If there are still power outages at that time, the crews will resume working in the early morning hours. 

Update published at 12:12 p.m.:

Downed trees and power lines are still causing some problems on the local roads.

In Dearborn County, State Road 1 remains shut down at North Dearborn Road. That’s due to a power line which fell down across the highway at around 7:30 a.m.

State Road 101 between State Road 48 and Sunman is also shut down. A large tree fell across the road, bringing down power lines. That tree fell around 11:00 a.m., so dispatchers feared that S.R. 101 may be closed a well into the afternoon.

Some other roads closed by fallen trees include Station Hollow Road and Possum Ridge Road in the Aurora area.

As the air temperature warms and the ice melts, local line crews are hoping to get the power back on.

Ice will continue to melt today, but use caution around any downed trees and power lines. pic.twitter.com/HPtYi6lQ3q

— NWS Wilmington OH (@NWSILN) November 15, 2018

Widespread power outages persist across the tri-state. Southeastern Indiana REMC is currently reporting under 15,000 customers without service as of noon. The number had been over 16,000 across REMC’s seven-county service area.

SEI REMC spokesman Barry Lauber says additional crews from other parts of Indiana are coming to the area to help tackle all the outages today, but there is no estimation on when power may be back on.

Duke Energy says its line crews are still assessing the damage as they try to restore service. The utility has about 2,500 customers in southeastern Indiana without power. About 2,000 Duke customers in Harrison, Cleves, and North Bend have no electricity.

The Ice Storm Warning for the tri-state was canceled around 11:00 a.m.

Photo by @mirr_10, Twitter.

Original story published at 8:08 a.m.:

(Osgood, Ind.) – Southeastern Indiana REMC will have additional linemen from other parts of the state to help restore power outages created by Thursday morning’s ice storm.

SEI REMC spokesman Barry Lauber says the first reports of outages began to come in around 1:00 a.m. as freezing rain began to accumulate on tree branches and power lines. By 7:30 a.m. there were more than 15,000 customers of the electric cooperative without power.

“Some trees are still moving and snapping lines,” Lauber says.

Lauber said it is too premature to give an estimate on when all customers may have service restored.

Citizens are being asked to let the professionals deal with downed power lines and tree branched which may be weighing on lines still in place.

“Those lines could be energized. Stay away. Don’t try to drive over them,” cautions Lauber.

Power lines across the road have shut down some major roadways, including State Road 1 at North Dearborn Road in Dover, State Road 48 at Crossbow Trails Lane in Lawrenceburg, and others.

Duke Energy crews are also working to address their share of outages in our area. About 1,600 customers in Boone County are affected. Around 3,000 customers in the Harrison, Cleves, and Miamitown areas are without service as of 7:30.

Greendale Mayor Alan Weiss says the city's utility crews have been out since 4:00 a.m. addressing power outages.