BRANCH COUNTY, MI (WTVB) – Consumers Energy is urging customers to be cautious and patient as the number of downed wires and outages increased during the overnight hours.
The Wednesday afternoon and evening freezing rain and ice storm has left behind a massive amount of power outages and it maybe days before some people get the lights back on.
Some restoration times are being listed as Monday on the Consumers Energy web site outage page.
As of 5:00 a.m. Thursday morning, over 6,000 Consumer Energy customers in Branch County were without power while over 17,000 were out in Hillsdale County. That’s almost 91 percent of the amount of customers Consumers has in Hillsdale County.
Meanwhile, there were nearly 24,000 outages in Calhoun County and over 400 outages in St. Joseph County.
With the snow and freezing rain abating, Consumers Energy continues to assess the extent of the damage from Wednesday’s winter storm and deploy crews for restoration work in the most impacted portions of the state. While some crews have begun restoration work already, the energy provider says they more than 300 crews mobilized and ready to begin what the utility says will be an all-hands-on-deck restoration process once it is safe for all crews to be deployed.
More than 193,000 customers were impacted by the outages Thursday morning.
Consumers spokesperson Norm Kapala says “Now that the ice and freezing rain have largely passed, we’ve got boots fully on the ground assessing damage and determining where and when to send our crews. Our focus continues to be restoring power as quickly as possible, and we’re doing everything we can to ensure our customers and our crews stay safe during this process.”
The utility says restoration times can vary depending on safety conditions. Customers can report an outage and check the status of outage by visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter.
Residents are urged to stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines, keep children and pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050.
Consumers Energy also asks the public to keep a safe distance from crews.
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