A severe round of storms tore through northern Indiana and southwest Michigan Sunday evening, triggering a widespread power outage that left tens of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity as crews scrambled to assess damage overnight.
In Kosciusko County, Indiana, roughly 15,000 homes and businesses lost power as the storms rolled through, according to data from PowerOutage.com reported by WSBT. The outage hit multiple communities hard. Nipco, the local electric utility, reported more than 700 customers without power in both North Webster and Syracuse. Warsaw, the county seat, saw more than 2,500 customers affected by the outage, WSBT reported.
The damage was not confined to Kosciusko County. Indiana Michigan Power, known as I&M, reported separately that about 9,000 of its customers lost power Sunday night as the same storm system pushed through the utility's broader service territory, according to WNDU. As of 8:30 p.m., I&M told WNDU that Allen County had taken the brunt of the damage, with more than 8,000 customers in the dark. St. Joseph County reported 670 outages, and southwest Michigan saw under 250 customers affected, the utility said.
Taken together, the figures reported by the two utilities and PowerOutage.com point to a power outage event that stretched across several counties and two states, affecting well over 24,000 customers at the height of the storms Sunday night. The exact scope changed by the hour as crews worked and as additional bands of severe weather moved through the region.
Crews Working Through Downed Lines and Poles
I&M said its crews were working through the night to make downed lines and poles safe, assess the extent of the damage, and begin restoring service in areas where the storms had already passed, according to WNDU. That triage approach is standard for utilities facing a large-scale power outage after severe weather, since crews typically cannot safely begin repairs in areas still experiencing active storms or high winds.
The utility also warned that additional strong-to-severe storms were possible overnight Sunday, raising the possibility that the outage totals could grow before crews finished restoring service to already-affected customers. I&M urged residents to stay away from any downed power lines, telling customers through WNDU that all downed lines should be treated as energized and dangerous regardless of whether they appear to be active.
Neither WSBT nor WNDU reported a specific timeline for full restoration in either the Kosciusko County area or the broader I&M service territory, underscoring how fluid the situation remained as the storms continued moving through the region. Utilities generally decline to offer firm restoration estimates until crews can complete an initial damage assessment across the full outage area, particularly when additional severe weather remains possible.
A Storm System Spanning Multiple Counties
The scale of the outage reflects how far the storm system traveled Sunday, cutting a path that affected communities in both north-central and northeast Indiana as well as parts of southwest Michigan. Kosciusko County sits in north-central Indiana and is served primarily by Nipco, a rural electric cooperative, while Allen County and St. Joseph County fall within Indiana Michigan Power's territory to the north and east. The fact that both utility areas reported significant outages from the same storm system Sunday evening illustrates the breadth of the damaging winds and rain that accompanied the storms.
Warsaw's more than 2,500 affected customers made it one of the hardest-hit individual communities named in the reporting, while North Webster and Syracuse each reported more than 700 outages despite being considerably smaller towns. Allen County's toll of more than 8,000 outages made it, by far, the single largest concentration of outages reported by either utility.
For residents in the affected areas, the immediate concerns Sunday night centered on safety around storm debris and downed lines rather than restoration timing. I&M's warning to treat all downed lines as live and dangerous applies broadly across any area experiencing a power outage tied to storm damage, since lines can remain energized even after they have fallen or appear disconnected from a source.
Both WSBT and WNDU indicated that additional storm activity remained possible into the overnight hours, meaning the outage figures reported Sunday evening represented a snapshot rather than a final count. Customers in Kosciusko County, Allen County, St. Joseph County and the affected areas of southwest Michigan were left waiting for updates from Nipco and Indiana Michigan Power as crews continued working to restore service through the night.
Utilities in the region typically post real-time outage maps and estimated restoration times as damage assessments progress, and customers affected by the power outage were directed to check with their respective providers, Nipco or Indiana Michigan Power, for the latest information on when service might be restored to their specific area.
