March 8, 2017 – Big Cedar Lake, WI – My power went out west of Big Cedar Lake on top of the Great Divide at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 8 on the second day of very high winds.
Calling We Energies by cell phone resulted in a recorded message stating, “all lines are busy due to the high volume of calls, please call back later. ”
I discovered 25 minutes later that landlines were able to get thru to We Energies automated system, so I was able to report my outage.
Having an electric stove and my car trapped in the garage, I walked down the hill to the Olde Cedar Inn on Highway 144, about a mile and a tenth away for something to eat.
I was saved from that walk when I hitched a ride from a very nice young man in a white pickup.
I didn’t catch his name, but he told me the power was also out at his house on Wildlife Drive.
My niece who lives on West Lake Drive said her husband told her their power was out too.
I called Olde Cedar Inn and learned they had power before setting out. I ate a big bowl of Nadine Urban’s hearty hamburger soup.
The wonderful folks at Olde Cedar Inn gave me a ride back up the hill, where a couple of real big spruce trees came down yesterday.
Power was still out at the time of this report.
UPDATE: Power returned to the top of the Great Divide just after 3:30 p.m. The automated call from We Energy to verify power was restored came in at 3:39 p.m. The outage was reportedly caused by branches touching wires and affected 1,477 customers.