Power, Utilities & Connectivity

This is the most commonly confused thing about outages here. The City of Menasha is served by its own municipal utility, not by We Energies. Reporting a Menasha outage to We Energies will not get your power restored, and calling the wrong utility during a disaster wastes time you may not have.

Report a power outage, partial power, flickering lights or a downed line: (920) 967-5190

Water emergency — main break, loss of pressure, or water quality: (920) 967-3450

Menasha Utilities also runs the city water system, so the boil water advisory is theirs. Call the water number above if you are unsure whether the advisory still applies to your address.

Main office: (920) 967-3400, Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Outside those hours use the outage or water emergency lines above, which are monitored around the clock.

Other useful numbers: electric meter exchange (920) 967-3423, and tree trimming or a street light out (920) 967-3400.

Village of Fox Crossing and Town of Menasha addresses are a different matter — check a recent bill to confirm who serves you, as the boundary is not obvious from the address alone.

Outages peaked above 126,000 We Energies customers on July 27. As of that evening roughly 97,000 were still out across about 720 separate outages.

Hardest hit by county: Kenosha (31,015), Milwaukee (22,345), Outagamie (20,204), Winnebago (9,838), Calumet (4,721).

By municipality: Appleton 22,670 — roughly 30% of the city — and Neenah 5,883. A further 2,388 were reported under the Menasha name; note that We Energies does not serve the City of Menasha itself, so those are surrounding-area customers.

If your address is in the City of Menasha, call Menasha Utilities at (920) 967-5190 instead — the city has its own municipal electric utility, and We Energies cannot restore your power. Check a recent bill if you are unsure who serves you.

Report your own outage. Crews route work from reported outages, and a house on a repaired line can stay dark for days because nobody reported it individually.

To report a downed line or gas odor, call the emergency line immediately rather than using the app.

Both the Menasha and Fox Crossing water plants were knocked out by the outage, and both communities are now drawing on the City of Neenah's system.

Please postpone anything non-essential: laundry, dishwashers, car washing, lawn watering, filling pools. Keeping pressure up in the system is also what makes it possible to lift the boil water advisory sooner — and what keeps hydrants working for firefighters.

Water problems in the City of Menasha — a main break, no pressure, or a question about water quality — go to Menasha Utilities at (920) 967-3450, which runs the city water system. That line is monitored around the clock.

Parts of the Fox Valley are served by Wisconsin Public Service instead of We Energies. If you are unsure which utility serves you, check a recent bill.

WPS reported several hundred additional customers out in Winnebago County following the storm.

A charged phone is how you reach your insurer, your family and 911. Places worth trying:

• The emergency shelter at Christ the Rock Community Church has power and outlets
• Public libraries outside the outage area — Appleton, Neenah, Kaukauna and Oshkosh branches typically offer free wifi and outlets, and often extend hours after a disaster
• Cooling centers announced by Winnebago County are opening; these normally have power and charging
• Shopping centers and coffee shops on restored circuits, particularly west Appleton near the Fox River Mall

Call ahead where you can — some locations are running on generators with limited capacity.

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