Power outages caused by the storm that hit the western Upper Peninsula Thursday, are gradually being restored, according to Dave Forsberg.

Forsberg, who is Upper Peninsula Power Company community, media and government relations representative, said as of 3 p.m. Thursday, two of the three power lines owned by American Transmission Company that were affected by the storm have been re-energized.

Forsberg said at the worst part of the outages, about 26,000 UPPCO customers in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, Ontonagon and Marquette counties were without power. About 24,000 of that number were in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties. Power has been restored to many customers, with about 1,700 still without power in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties.

Forsberg said there are two UPPCO crews and four hired crews from Wisconsin working on restoring power. Six more UPPCO crews will be working later today. Crews are usually made of two people.

On Thursday, Forsberg said about 100 UPPCO employees in all capacities were working on the outage situation.

Forsberg is warning people not to touch any downed power lines they find, but to call UPPCO at 800-562-7809.

The intent is to have all power restored by this evening, Forsberg said, but some of the downed lines are in remote areas.

“It’s going to take awhile,” he said.