ORLEANS – Orange County REMC customers in Indiana have restored power to all but one customer as of 8:15 a.m. this morning.
More than 820 residents were without power early this morning.
Orange County REMC urges the public to use this link to access the most up-to-date outage information.
While the utility has not released a specific cause for the current outage, the severe cold can lead to several problems:
High Demand: Extreme low temperatures cause a massive spike in energy demand as heating systems run constantly, potentially stressing transformers and other distribution equipment, leading to failure.
Brittle Equipment: Very cold weather can cause materials like steel and ceramic insulators to become brittle and susceptible to breaking under normal mechanical stress.
Ice/Snow Damage: Although current precipitation risk is low, residual ice or a previous weather event could have weakened infrastructure, with the prolonged cold contributing to equipment failure (such as “galloping lines” from wind and ice).
Tree-Related Issues: Trees and tree limbs, already a common cause of rural outages, can become heavier and more brittle in sub-freezing conditions, snapping and falling onto power lines.
