COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A combination of wind and ice caused by freezing rain knocked out electric power to over 500 Consumer Energy customers in the Branch County area Sunday.
As of early Monday morning, Consumers Energy reported over 8,600 customers system-wide were without power. As many as over 42,000 customers outages were reported.
The Monday morning outages included 225 in Branch County, 1,328 in Calhoun County and 396 in Hillsdale County.
The biggest outage area in Branch County was southeast of Coldwater Lake in Kinderhook Township. According to the Consumers Energy Outage Map, power is expected to be restored by 11:00 p.m. Monday.
There were nearly a dozen reports of downed trees around Branch County on Sunday morning but given the dire forecasts, this area may have dodged a weather bullet.
Temperatures stayed around the 32 degree mark with some light snow and mixed precipitation during the overnight and early morning hours on Sunday.
While the weather may have caused some grumbling by those waiting for spring to arrive, it wasn’t as catastrophic as it was in the Detroit area.
More than 310,000 DTE Energy customers were without power Sunday due to the ice storm as about 1,200 power poles were knocked down. It could be Tuesday night before all of the utility customers are back on line.
