GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Many West Michiganders are still without power come Saturday morning.
According to an update from Consumer's Energy, as of 4:30 a.m., about 77,300 customers were experiencing outages across Michigan, mostly in west Michigan where an ice storm coated trees and electric equipment. Outages were compounded by winds that packed speeds up to 55 mph across the Lower Peninsula Thursday and Friday.
More than 1,200 Consumers Energy crews and contractors were joined by more than 200 out-of-state crews from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma.
Consumers Energy employees are pulling 16-hour shifts through the end of the week to assist with restoration. Their efforts have restored electric service to over 153,700 customers.
With much more favorable weather Saturday morning and afternoon, Consumers Energy's Vice President of Electric Operations, Guy Packard, said customers can expect continued progress.
The majority of people without power can expect their service restored by late Sunday. Final restoration for those in hardest hit areas will see power late Monday.
Officials continue to warn residents on the dangers of downed power lines. At one point, in the wake of the storm there were more than 3,000 downed lines and crews are still working to address them.
For those in need of warmth and food, the American Red Cross opened shelters at Union and Ottawa Hills high schools as well as North Rockford Middle School and the Walker Fire Department for residents who need warm housing during the outage.
The Kent County Animal Shelter said that they would board pets for free for residents seeking emergency shelter in Grand Rapids.
Kids' Food Basket is also providing emergency food assistance to families in need because of severe weather. The distribution sites will offer supplemental food and fresh produce for families to take home including bananas, pears, carrot packs, pudding, almonds, raisins, fruit cups and meat sticks.
Consumers Energy and city officials in Grand Rapids gave an update on the power outages Friday morning. See that update here.
Keep track of the outages on Consumers Energy's outage map.
Consumers Energy customers can sign up to get outage alerts and restoration times sent to a phone, email or text message, Text ‘REG' to 232273 or visit ConsumersEnergy.com/alerts.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.