Photo courtesy UPPCO An Upper Peninsula Power Company employee inspects the seen where heavy snowfall has brought down trees. Power outages caused by left thousands in the dark Wednesday and Thanksgiving Day.

HOUGHTON COUNTY — The severe storm that swept through the Upper Peninsula Wednesday, lingering into Thursday morning, left thousands of homes and businesses in the western U.P. without power.

Early Thursday morning, the Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO) published a release saying nearly 5,000 of its customers remained without power following a strong wave of winter weather that brought heavy snow and high winds across the region. UPPCO and contracted crews worked through the evening in whiteout conditions and sustained winds, with additional crews now en route to assist with restoration efforts.

Several hundred customers were still without electricity as of Friday morning. Since the storm began in the early hours Wednesday, UPPCO had been working around the clock to restore power to customers as quickly as possible.

A Friday morning UPPCO release reported just under 400 customers were still without power, with UPPCO crews and contractors positioned to make good progress Friday – focusing efforts in the Jacobsville and Rabbit Bay areas in Houghton County, and Lake Medora in Keweenaw County. The release said trees on lines, wires down, and broken poles continue to be the primary causes of remaining outages. Because of the remote nature of the remaining outages, the release said, circuits that are restored Friday may only bring a handful of customers back at a time. Additional crews are dedicated to taking care of those as well, the release said.

Corporal Darren Jurmu, from the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office, said Friday morning that UPPCO had reported two crews working in the Lake Medora area with tracker equipment. Another seven crews were working in the Jacobsville and Rabbit Bay areas. Crews were also working in the Kearsarge area, along with two crews from Ishpeming working in Chassell.

“So, our county is still experiencing power outages in the outlying areas,” Jurmu said, “but power’s been restored through much of the county.”

On Friday morning, Poweroutage.us reported 121 homes and businesses were still without power in Keweenaw County, while in Houghton County, the number was 335, with Ontonagon County was reported to have 323 customers still without power. In Gogebic County, the number was 971.

UPPCO crews worked through Thanksgiving Day to restore power throughout the western U.P.

Downed trees and limbs have made up the majority of challenges facing not only UPPCO crews, but road crews and law enforcement agencies as well. In Houghton County Wednesday, Houghton City Police Chief John Donnelly said the biggest concern has been downed trees and problems with power lines. “The main thing we’ve had is downed trees affecting the power,” he said.

Electricity was not the only utility to experience outages.

Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala said on Wednesday afternoon that all telephone connectivity, both landlines and cellular, was lost throughout the county north of Mohawk. Early Friday morning, the Eagle Harbor Inn, in Keweenaw County, thanked UPPCO for its dedication throughout the storm on its social media page.

“We are forever grateful for the UPPCO crews that were out diligently seeking out the issues and resolving them,” the post states. “A fellow resident in Eagle Harbor talked to a crew who said as soon as they take a tree off the lines another one falls. I can’t imagine working under those conditions. We whole heartedly thank the UPPCO crews and the Keweenaw County Road Commission for keeping the power on and the roads clear.”