MUSKEGON, Mich. — It has been uncharted territory for Jim Bozell and his neighbors in North Muskegon.
The Neighborhood hasn’t had power since Tuesday morning, something Bozell said he isn’t used to.
His neighborhood, he said, usually is never out of power for this long.
“No nothing over four or five hours that I can recall over the last 21 years,” said Bozell. “It's a little tougher for us because this area is well water so we have no water and we’re not able to flush toilets or run any water so we had to go buy a little bit of water and stuff.”
The Tuesday morning storms that brought down trees and blocked around 50 percent of roads in Muskegon County still has left over 40,000 Consumers Energy customers without power.
Something Norm Kapala VP of Generation Operations for the company says is progress.
“We have restored a lot of customers, about 130,000 so far, we’ve got just over 45,000 left to restore, but we have a lot of crews working,” said Kapala.
Kapala said crews are still working 16-hour shifts, with marching orders and coordination coming from the North Muskegon Meijer Parking lot, which has been turned into a mobile operations center.
“The wind was unbelievable, there was a lot of tree damage, so a lot of that is getting into the areas, that has been challenging, we’ve cleared those hurdles, now are crews are going to work,” said Kapala.
Bozell and his neighbors are just hoping power is restored soon.
“Yeah it’s tough, but again, I know there’s more people out there that have a lot worse situations going on so I hope the best for them as well.”
Power is expected to be restored to Muskegon County homes and businesses by midday Thursday.
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