JACKSON, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Consumers Energy says it’s mobilizing all available resources to respond after a storm featuring high winds over 60 miles per hour swept into Michigan overnight, causing damage across the West Michigan lakeshore while knocking out power to over 157,000 Consumers Energy customers.
With the expectation of sustained high winds through the afternoon today, Consumers Energy pre-staged over 110 crews, and right now they have approximately 300 crews on the system working to prepare restoration efforts, assessing damage already caused, and de-energizing wires that have fallen.
As of 12 noon, almost 156,000 Consumers Energy customers were still without power. Kalamazoo County was reporting 1,265 outages, with 6,967 in Ottawa County, 8,409 in Kent County, 673 in Allegan County, and 659 in Calhoun County. Roscommon County in northern Michigan was one of the hardest hit areas, with 13,549 customers without power, almost half of the customers in the county.
“Mother Nature has hit Michigan hard again, but we are ready to respond in full force as soon as conditions are safe,” said Christine Wisniewski, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm event. “Our restoration team including lineworkers, forestry crews, and restoration management staff have been prepping since Tuesday and are ready to start restoring service for customers once the winds die down. Based on current damage assessments, we expect most impacted customers to be restored by the end of the day Saturday.”
Severe winds hit west and northwest lower Michigan late last night and into this morning. Winds reportedly over 60 mph knocked down trees, limbs and over 1,200 power lines.
Restoration times are being determined once the high winds leave our region and a full damage assessment can be completed. 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.
