ALPENA POWER COMPANY
401 N. Ninth Ave Alpena, Michigan 49707
For Immediate Release
March 20, 2026 7:00AM
Contact:
Ken Dragiewicz, President and COO
solutions@alpenapower.com
OUTAGE UPDATE
Current Situation
As of 7 am this morning 90% of our customers have been restored leaving approximately 1,750 customers without power. All available crews are working to restore outages including assistance from Thunder Bay Tree Service , The City of Lowell, The City of Bay City, City of Sturgis, City of Lansing, Homeworks Tri County Cooperative, Thumb Electric Cooperative, the Hydaker-Wheatlake Company, Premium Utility Contracting and Kappan Tree Service. In total 41 contract and mutual aid crews are assisting Alpena Power employees in the restoration effort. We express our thanks to the utilities and contractors helping in this difficult time.
Rain and additional icing overnight has led to many roads, especially secondary roads, becoming extremely slippery.
Please use caution with driving past utility workers as many are set up on the side of roads. Drivers should slow down or stop and wait for oncoming traffic to clear so they can safely go past our workers.
For their safety and yours please do not approach or engage with line crews working to restore power.
Safety Tips
Safety of our customers is a top priority. Please keep the following in mind.
• If using a generator, ensure they are connected properly and legally with a transfer switch so they cannot back feed into the power lines and cause danger to our crews or the public.
• Always operate a generator outdoors in a well-ventilated space
• Stay at least 25 feet away from downed wires and anything they are touching, keep children or pets away. Report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Alpena Power Company at (989) 358-4900
• Turn main breakers off if there is standing water anywhere near electrical devices
How to check on an outage
One tool that can help keep you informed is our webpage outage viewer available at: https://www.alpenapower.com/outage-center/. A customer can zoom into their location and see if their outage has been reported. If you are in a reported area, we have the outage information and will get a crew dispatched as soon as one is available.
What if I need assistance?
If you need assistance, the Alpena Public Schools has created a website which lists resources available. It can be found at:
https://www.alpenaschools.com/page/emergency-resources
Summary
As we start the fifth day of storm recovery, I want to thank our customers for their patience and understanding and the community for their support.
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