JACKSON, Michigan — Consumers Energy is close to restoring power to all of its customers by the end of Monday, the utility company says.
Multiple tornados knocked out power to over 200,000 Consumers Energy customers on Thursday night.
Four days later, the utility company says that they are in their final push to restore power to its customers.
“Today is all about the final push and executing safely to restore power for our remaining customers who have been so patient in challenging circumstances,” said Scott McIntosh, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm. “Our crews are continuing their around-the-clock efforts and will focus on the hardest-hit circuits. As always, safety is our top priority, especially with schools back in session in most communities.”
Consumers Energy said that they made restoring power to schools a priority over the weekend and now they are working to restore power to the remaining 29,000 customers without.
The utility company is prioritizing the hardest hit communities on Monday, in hopes of having power restored by the end of the day. Those communities are:
- Kent County, including Plainfield, Lowell and surrounding areas.
- Ionia County, including Saranac, Clarksville and surrounding areas.
- Ingham County, including Stockbridge and the surrounding area.
- Eaton County, including Grand Ledge, Dimondale, Potterville and surrounding areas.
- Jackson County, including Jackson, Napoleon, Brooklyn and surrounding areas.
- Livingston County, including Cohoctah Township, Deerfield Township and surrounding areas.
Officials are encouraging Michiganders to stay safe as cleanup continues. They released a list of safety tips to follow:
- Be alert to crews working along roads. Drivers should slow down or stop and wait for oncoming traffic to clear so they safely can go past workers on roadsides.
- Never use a generator in an attached garage, basement, enclosed patio or near any air intakes. Doing so could cause a generator to produce hazardous levels of carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless and deadly gas. Read more guidance on safe generator use here.
- Consumers Energy will trim or remove trees interfering with electric restoration activities. Once safe to do so, clean-up of debris from tree trimming or removal during a storm emergency is the responsibility of individual property owners.
- In some cases, the mast that holds the electric service wires to a home or business may have been damaged or torn away. Crews will reconnect the wires to a home, but only a licensed electrician can repair or replace a mast or a cable.
To see a real-time outage map, click here.
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