A widespread thunderstorm system made up of high winds affected electric service for nearly 9,000 Lake Country Power members across northeastern Minnesota late Wednesday afternoon.

At the height, the storm caused 154 different outage points with the largest around Big Sandy Lake near McGregor, Lake Vermilion, Side Lake, Moose Lake, and others south of highway 169 between Grand Rapids and Hibbing.

Unfortunately, the LCP public facing outage viewer experienced technical issues early on. Members were not able to see real-time details of the outage and restoration efforts. The issues with the outage viewer have not yet been resolved.

All available crews including construction workers are responding; 40 LCP lineworkers and six from Lake States Construction are in the field working toward restoration.

Other details of system damage are not yet known. Early reports stated many powerlines down which prompted 23 9-1-1 calls and more than 30 emergency tickets received.

As of 9:10 p.m., linecrews have restored electric service to nearly 4,000 members, with roughly 5,000 still awaiting restoration.