Lake Country Power line crews have restored electric service to more than 13,500 cooperative members following a wave of severe thunderstorms Monday night. Currently, 2,800 members remain without power at 187 outage points.

Crews focused on larger outage areas throughout Wednesday to restore power for the greatest number of members in the shortest time possible. Individual outages and broken poles will be addressed afterward. Lake Country Power anticipates full restoration of the system Friday.

High winds Tuesday night created a setback for line crews after substations near Walker and Longville experienced outages. These were separate incidents from the original Monday night storms and crews restored power to the substations Wednesday morning.

The majority of those still affected reside in St. Louis County where 2,200 members remain without service, including another 600 members in Itasca County. Also impacted are parts of Aitkin, Carlton, Cass, Lake and Pine counties.

For safety reasons, line crews will be sent home at 10 p.m. Wednesday for much needed rest after working 16 hours straight. Stand-by crews, represented by 6 line workers, will pick up the workload and continue through the night until the rested crews begin again Thursday morning for a 16-hour shift.

Lake Country Power is keeping personnel working 24-hours around the clock until all members are restored from the storm.

Members may call the cooperative at 1-800-421-9959 to report an outage, or visit the Outage Center online at www.lakecountrypower.coop or http://outage.lcp.coop for an outage status.

Tips for extended outages:

• Make sure one of the phones in your home is not a cordless phone as these require electricity to charge, but also have a mobile phone for backup and charge it in your vehicle, if necessary.

• Use a battery powered flashlight, not candles.

• Keep a battery operated radio handy to listen for outage information and updates

• Turn off electrical equipment you were using before the power went out

• Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed. Food should keep for up to 48 hours in a freezer, if the door remains closed. If the outage persists, cover your refrigerator or freezer with a blanket, make arrangements to store food at another location, or purchase dry ice.

• Drink plenty of fluids to stay hydrated.

• Essential supplies: flashlight, batteries, radio, extra supply of water, food.

• Turn off and unplug your computer if you were using it.

• Buy a surge protector to protect the machine when power comes back on.

• Keep extra water on hand in jugs or the bathroom tub for flushing the toilet as needed.