As of 5 p.m. Friday, an estimated 500 Upper Peninsula Power Company customers in Houghton, Baraga and Ontonagon counties were still without power due to the strong storm on Thursday morning, according to UPPCO spokesman Dave Forsberg.

The number was reduced from a little less than 1,000 number as of Friday at 12:30 p.m.

Forsberg said crews will continue to work until all customers restored.

Anyone coming across a downed wire or trees or limbs on lines are asked to call UPPCO’s 24-hour electric emergency number at 800-562-7809.

UPPCO customers can receive timely outage updates via Twitter @UPPCOstorm. More outage information and storm safety tips can be found at uppco.com.

Michigan Tech closed its campus Friday afternoon to repair damage to a transformer in the school’s Daniell Heights section.

A campus-wide power outage occurred at approximately 4 a.m. on Friday. Facilities Management crews traced the outage to a fault in a transformer in Daniell Heights. Power was quickly restored to all university buildings except Daniell Heights, where it remains out.

The four-hour outage was scheduled to determine the damage to the transformer and to start repairs. A planned second outage will be necessary after repairs are completed, but it will be shorter and will affect fewer buildings.

The Western U.P. Health Department is reminding people who experienced power outages to keep refrigerated food safety principles in mind:

According to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, domestic refrigerators will only keep food safely cold for about four hours if unopened during a power outage. A full freezer will hold temperature for about 48 hours if full (24 hours if half full).

A food thermometer should be used to determine food temperatures when the power is out for an extended time. Potentially hazardous foods such as meat, poultry, fish, milk, cooked leftovers, deli cold cuts/salads, and other perishable foods should be discarded when the food temperature has been above 40 degrees F for over 2 hours.

Frozen foods that remain solid or semi-solid can be refrozen if the food packages show no evidence of thawing.

Private water wells used by residents and businesses for drinking water may need to be tested for coliform bacteria or disinfected if system pressure was lost during the power outage.