Bluewater Power crews worked through the night restoring power to customers following Thursday's extreme weather.
Damaged hydro poles and downed trees on power lines seems to be the most common issue the utility is dealing with according to President and CEO Janice McMichael-Dennis.
She said at the peak of the damage Thursday, they had approximately 17,000 customers without power, which represents about half of the utility's customer base.
"So at one point during this mammoth impactful storm, there was one out of every two customers without power which is a bit daunting as you can imagine," said McMichael-Dennis. "But, our full team is all hands on deck. The crews have worked hard and we brought that down from 17,000 to about 1,000 customers [Friday morning]. That's still a big problem because that means there are still 1,000 customers without power."
McMichael-Dennis said there are some areas that are a utility's worst nightmare.
"We have a list of ten areas, Alvinston being one of them, and then smaller pockets throughout Sarnia and Point Edward that have an almost overwhelming level of damage," she said. "We are hopeful that we can do this by nightfall, but we're not convinced. We will do everything we can, but there is a chance these power outages can last until tomorrow [Saturday]."
Residents are reminded to stay clear of any fallen power lines.
"There are still reports of lines on the ground, so we have to make all of our friends in Sarnia-Lambton aware that if you see a line down on the ground you never go near it," said McMichael-Dennis. "You don't go look at it, you don't walk up and try to determine what it is, you call Bluewater Power."
McMichael Dennis said updates will be posted on the outage map as they become available, and on social media.
Hydro One was dealing with 46 scattered outages across the county Friday morning affecting over 2,000 customers.