COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Severe Thunderstorms and heavy rains hammered Branch County and southern Michigan over the holiday weekend leaving thousands without power and causing localized flooding.
A volatile weather system brought straight-line winds exceeding 60 mph on Friday evening, , uprooting trees and knocking down power lines across all of southern Michigan. In Branch County alone, Consumers Energy reported thousands of initial customer outages, while high winds briefly blocked traffic on several roads like U.S. 12 near Quincy.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a Flood Advisory Sunday morning after up to three inches of rain fell in just under three hours three hours forcing the temporary closure of multiple roads in Quincy and Algansee Townships.
Emergency Management Director Tim Miner said combined with Friday night’s storm system across the county the culverts were overwhelmed by Sunday morning’s heavy rain.
The Branch County Road Commission is now assessing any possible damage that may have been left behind.
As for power outages many in the county have been left without power for what is now entering a fourth day as Consumers Energy alongside out-of-state contractors from Ohio, Maryland and Alabama continue to restore the infrastructure by working sixteen hour days. However, Consumers says persistent weekend storm clusters did slow recovery, with peak statewide outages surpassing 500,000 customers during the holiday weekend.
As of this morning Consumers reported they had the outages down to under 20,000 system wide from it’s peak of over 66,000. That includes now just under 500 in Branch County, while still more than 2,000 remain without power in Hillsdale County and over 6,000 in Jackson County. Consumers says power has been nearly restores 100% in St Joseph County with now just under 100 customers still in the dark.
While weather models predict a transition to drier, more stable conditions early in the week, they say some heavily damaged areas are facing extended restoration timelines possibly extending into mid week.
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