A road in Houghton County after blizzard conditions hit earlier this week. (Upper Peninsula Power Co. photo)

We Energies and Upper Peninsula Power Co. continued power restoration efforts Friday as trees on lines, wires down and broken poles continued to be the main causes of remaining outages after a winter storm that began Tuesday night.

We Energies as of Friday afternoon reported 814 customers out of service in Iron County, 726 in Gogebic County, 166 in Ontonagon County and 301 in Vilas County, Wis. Scores of outages remained as well in Baraga and Marquette counties.

UPPCO, which on Thursday morning reported nearly 5,000 customers without power, had by Friday afternoon narrowed that number to 400, mainly in Houghton and Keweenaw counties.

“UPPCO’s service territory spans about 4,600 square miles with an average of 12 customers per square mile,” said Dan Freeborn, UPPCO’s manager of communications and external affairs. The terrain in some regions becomes more rugged and remote, making it a challenging environment for fixing downed lines and broken poles, he said.

While snow depth is minimal in the Dickinson County area, it’s in the range of 8 to 16 inches — and sometimes more — in other parts of the U.P.

In its efforts to restore power, UPPCO mobilized specialized tracked and all-terrain equipment designed to traverse rugged, snow-covered, and remote landscapes that conventional vehicles can’t reach safely, Freeborn said.