JACKSON, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Consumers Energy restoration crews are at work after a severe storm featuring high winds over 55 miles per hour swept quickly through Michigan Saturday morning, causing damage and knocking out power to over 146,000 customers.
As crews continue assessing the damage caused by the strong winds, they have been able to already restore power to 11,000 customers.
“Our crews in the field are seeing significant damage with trees snapped and lines down across our service territory,” said Melissa Gleespen, Consumers Energy’s Officer in Charge for the storm event. “We thank customers for their patience as we wait for the winds to die down so crews can safely restore power.”
The strong winds make access to pole tops and power lines dangerous from bucket trucks, and 268 crews are staged to begin work as soon as they are safely able.
Severe weather swept through Michigan knocking out power along the lakeshore, moving across mid and southern Michigan this morning. Winds reportedly over 55 mph knocked down trees, limbs and over 1,800 power lines.
A majority of affected customers are expected to be restored by the end of the day Monday. Customers can report an outage and check the status of outage by visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter. Customers can also sign up to get outage alerts and restoration times sent to a phone, email or text message, Text ‘REG’ to 232273 or visit www.ConsumersEnergy.com/alerts.
