BRANCH COUNTY, MI (WTVB) – Where were you when the lights went out one year ago?
It was one year ago on Friday when severe thunderstorms that packed winds of between 60 and 70 miles an hour in Branch County knocked down numerous trees which led to several streets and roads being blocked.
The Branch County Memorial Airport recorded a wind gust of 59 miles an hour.
The powerful storm was perhaps the worst to hit Branch County since the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak in 1965.
It led to a state of emergency being declared by Branch County Administrator Bud Norman.
Significant damage was also reported in St. Joseph, Hillsdale and Jackson Counties.
The third in a series of storms between August 6 and 12 came through at around 6:00 a.m..
Amazingly, no serious injuries were reported in Branch County but there was a lot of property damage.
Some Consumer’s Energy customers in Branch County lost their power for nearly a week.
At the height of the outages, almost 370,000 Consumer’s Energy customers in Michigan lost their power including nearly 11,000 in Branch County.
Downed trees, limbs, and poles caused power outages to over 1,600 Coldwater Board of Public Utilities’ customers.
Contracted crews from seven states had to be called in to help restore electricity.
The storm was one of the 10 most significant in Consumer’s Energy history as more than 6,000 wires were knocked down and over 200 poles were damaged across Michigan.
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