Breaking: Thousands without power in parts of Mishawaka, South Bend, St. Joseph County

MISHAWAKA, Ind. (WSBT) — A portion of Mishawaka, South Bend, Granger and northern St. Joseph County are in the dark this afternoon after a power outage was reported.

A tree fell on power lines which included high voltage wires that supply power to substations.

Originally 9,000 I&M Power customers were without electricity Wednesday afternoon, according to I&M representatives.

I&M says they restored power to 1,000 customers, leaving 8,000 without power.

Mishawaka Utilities says over3,200 customers are out of power. The outage has impacted the University Park area, from Douglas Road north.

Between the two utility companies 12,000 customers were without power at one point.

Power Outage Map. (I&M power image)

Crews are working to restore power as fast as possible.

However, power problems continue to cause traffic issues. Mishawaka Utilities says it will be several hours before it’s fixed.

At the intersection of Main and Douglas in Mishawaka there have seen so many close calls possibly resulting in accidents as traffic picks up.

Traffic lights are out and traffic has backed up on streets, and it’s only gotten worse with rush hour. There’s been a lot of honking and near-misses with drivers unsure of whose turn it is to go without the traffic lights working at busy intersections.

This power outage is not just affecting traffic lights, but also power in nearby businesses as well. While many restaurants in the area were left without power Jimmy John’s is one of the few that is up and running, and their delivery drivers are seeing the heavy traffic firsthand.

“It’s scary because you can already see the traffic is super congested around here and all our drivers have been taking super long and I feel if they can’t get that figured out I hope there aren’t too many accidents happening cuz that would be bad,” said Finn Richardson, Jimmy John’s manager.

Indiana Michigan Power says it may be 10:00 before power is restored.