Factbox: U.S. storms cut power to 540,000 Midwest homes and businesses

American Electric Power

13/08/2026 07:04

Adds Duke Energy statement; paragraphs 7-9
By Scott DiSavino
Aug 13 (Reuters) - Power supply was cut on Thursday to about 540,000 homes and businesses across the U.S. Midwest as severe storms battered the region, data from PowerOutage.us showed.
Indiana was the hardest-hit state, with more than 267,000 outages, representing about 8% of its roughly 3.3 million customers, the data showed.
"Rounds of severe thunderstorms will threaten the plains, midwest and east into Thursday with damaging wind gusts, while repeated downpours could trigger dangerous flash flooding,"  weather forecaster AccuWeather said in a statement.
Indiana's hardest-hit utility was Northern Indiana Public Service Co, taking out services to about 258,885 homes and businesses, or about 55% of its roughly 468,000 customers in the state. NIPSCO is a unit of Indiana energy firm NiSource NI.N.
In a statement, the utility said it was assessing damage and would provide estimated restoration times when the task was complete, but warned that restoration could take days in some areas as the damage was extensive.
"There is widespread damage to electric infrastructure, including downed poles, power lines, and trees," it added.
Duke Energy said it was pulling in 1,000 workers to restore power to more than 171,000 customers across Greater Cincinnati in Ohio over the past 24 hours. 
"They'll work alongside our employees and contractors in Ohio and Kentucky to safely restore service for our customers as quickly as possible," storm director Andy Cassidy said in a statement.
About 46,200 homes and businesses were without power, or about 6% of its roughly 768,281 customers in Ohio. 
Other energy firms with power outages include units of Exelon EXC.O, and American Electric Power Co AEP.O.
     
Here are the major outages by state:
     
State
 Outages 
Indiana
267,344
Illinois
88,145
Ohio
87,963
Kentucky
21,222
California
14,665
 
 
Total Out
539,435
     

 (Reporting by Pablo Sinha and Scott DiSavino; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Clarence Fernandez)
 ((scott.disavino@thomsonreuters.com; +1 332 219 1922; Reuters Messaging: scott.disavino.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net/))