Upper Peninsula village faces up to 48 hours without power

NEWBERRY, MI — Residents in the village of Newberry, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, have been without power since early Saturday morning, Aug. 9, 2025.

The village, known as the ‘Moose Capital of Michigan’ and spanning less than a square mile, reported a system-wide power outage at 7:50 a.m.

In a Facebook post, Newberry wrote that their crew was working to get things back online; however, it would take at least 24-48 hours before power is restored.

“Please plan for several days without power and use water sparingly as we are still working on getting the water system generator up and running,” the statement said. “We will update the public as often as we have changes in status. We appreciate your patience and apologize for this significant inconvenience.”

At 9:13 a.m., the village announced that a replacement transformer had failed. A company was contacted to mobilize a portable power system for the village to use, but it will take up to 48 hours for that to occur, the post said.

The village’s last functioning backup generator failed in 2022 and was decommissioned due to irreparable damage. There is a backup generator for the water system, but the village reported it was not working properly.

In the meantime, the village instructed residents to keep refrigerators and freezers closed as much as possible to preserve coolness.

By 12:55 p.m., the outage was still systemwide, and crews with a temporary substation were being deployed from the Detroit area within 10 to 24 hours.

“Without a substation, power cannot be sent out to the power grid,” the updated Facebook post said. “This means that even if we had a working backup generator, the power could not get to the customers because the substation has to be functional.”

At 2:03 p.m., the village reported that the water system was back online, issuing a thank you to Pentland Township for allowing the use of their backup generator.

As of 7:15 p.m. Saturday, technicians were on site from both companies needed to get the temporary substation trailers in place and connected.

“The first of three trailers hauling the equipment is in the process of crossing the bridge now. We will update as equipment arrives and things progress,” the village said. “A huge thank you to our Electric Superintendent, Dan Kucinskas, who has been managing this process on the ground since the outage was reported this morning and will continue to problem-solve until power is restored.”