Consumers Energy expects to have power restored by evening

COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A few sections of southern Branch County remain without power this morning as Consumers Energy crews continue to repair lines and restore electric service following Monday’s freezing rain and sleet storm. At last word, 122 Consumers’ customers in the county were still waiting to have their power restored. Sustained winds of 30 mph with a few gusts of at least 40 mph were responsible for most of the outages as dozens of trees and limbs came down on wires and sparked a number of transformer fires.  At the peak of the problems on Monday, more than two thousand customers in Branch County were affected by the blackouts. Consumers Energy expects everyone should be back on-line before this evening. Hillsdale County, which was also hard hit by the storm, began this eve to New Year’s Eve with 1,280 Consumers customers still in the dark.