PORT HURON — SEMCO Energy Gas Company Wednesday announced that approximately 222 customers experienced a natural gas service disruption in the Twin Lakes area near Dowagaiac.

Although the system was restored in a few hours, SEMCO is still working with residents to reestablish gas service to individual homes. Unlike electrical outages, natural gas outages require each individual home to be restored by a technician.

At this time,  all homes in which SEMCO was allowed entry have been restored.

As many of the homes in this area are not occupied year-round, some customers have been difficult to reach. Anyone owning a home in the Twin Lakes area should visit www.semcoenergygas.com and view the outage map to see if their home is in the affected area. If the home is in the affected area and you have not already been contacted by SEMCO, please call customer service at 1 (800) 624-2019 to ensure your service is reestablished as soon as possible.

Because natural gas outages are very infrequent, customers may not be aware of the process involved in restoring service. The first step is that gas company personnel will manually shut off the valve at each individual gas meter. The pressure in the gas system is restored and service to all customers is restored individually. SEMCO technicians need access to each home in order to re-establish service and ensure all natural gas equipment is operating properly. Please do not try to restore service yourself.

SEMCO is committed to restoring service to all customers as soon as possible.