GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — John Rothwell sat inside his kitchen with a lamp illuminating him from behind. Just the day before, on July 9, his home, along with a line of several homes on his side of Riverside Drive lost power. Rothwell and neighbors of his said it was their seventh outage this year.
"We lived in the neighborhood 10 years, and the power outages here have been frequent, and often," said Rothwell.
Neighbors in the triangle-shaped area of the Creston Neighborhood, loosely bordered by 3 Mile Road to the north, Plainfield Avenue in the east, Eleanor Street in the south and Monroe Avenue in the West, have jokingly called the area "The Bermuda Triangle."
Back in 2019, 13 ON YOUR SIDE initially reported on outages in the neighborhood after they saw 18 outages within three years.
In 2019, Consumers Energy said they would be cleaning trees and vegetation away from lines, along with crews replacing worn and damaged poles, adding new equipment and upgrading wires.
Rothwell and other neighbors said that they noticed improvement after 2019, but say the issue is getting worse again.
A spokesperson from Consumers Energy acknowledged the outages in the neighborhood so far this year, and explained that two instances were caused by recent major storms, while others were caused by trees, and one case of an animal coming into contact with a line.
"I can understand a storm, and trees and that, but like yesterday, it was just a day. I don't even think there was a major wind yesterday, and it just it went out ," said Rothwell.
He said the outages during typical conditions have him concerned for other impacted neighbors as well, some of whom rely on medical equipment such as oxygen tanks.
However, Rothwell also wanted to acknowledge appreciation for Consumers quickly restoring power after the strong storms that recently hit West Michigan, along with appreciation for the ground crews.
'The guys out on the street, the work that the linesmen do and the crews do of getting the power back on, that is fantastic," said Rothwelll. "But when it goes out on a sunny day for no reason, or just out of the blue, bam, it goes out. Why? And what is it with this particular grid?"
Consumers Energy said in a statement: "We’re continuing to add technology that will reduce the number of outages and working to make sure here, and across the state, that we trim trees away from power lines. We encourage any households or businesses that are concerned about outages to contact us, and we want them to know we take our commitment to them seriously."
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