MUSKEGON, Mich. — Consumers Energy says it has 500 line workers in the field throughout Muskegon County working to restore power after a powerful snowstorm hit the county hard on Tuesday.
About 65,000 Consumers Energy customers around West Michigan lost power in the storm, which hit Muskegon County the hardest.
Christopher Laird, vice president of electric operations with Consumers Energy, tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE this was an unusual weather event that brought up to 11 inches in some areas with wet and heavy snow.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, less than 2,000 customers remain without power in Muskegon County.
"We're anticipating having the majority of those customers back on tonight," Laird said.
"We've got a couple of big pockets, one in North Muskegon out towards the [Muskegon] State Park and Pioneer Park and the one on the north side of White Lake."
Laird says more than 20 crews are working on restoring power to both of those areas and the rest are working on smaller stuff.
The number of downed trees and power lines around Muskegon, Muskegon Heights, Norton Shores, North Muskegon and Montague made it difficult for crews to restore power quickly.
"We may have a few stragglers into tomorrow, but we're going to work overnight as well to continue to restore power," Laird said.
If you are still without power, you are encouraged to continue to check Consumer's Energy's power outage map for the latest estimated restoration time.
Laird also thanked all the hard work of school superintendents, public safety officers and officials, first responders and Department of Public Works employees who have worked around the clock to keep everyone safe.
"We know with Halloween and trick-or-treating that it was inconvenient, unfortunately, Mother Nature gets a vote and the vote was at an unfortunate time."
Many Muskegon County communities have rescheduled trick-or-treating as a result.
The City of Muskegon, North Muskegon, and Muskegon Heights will host trick-or-treating on Saturday, November 4th from 6-8 p.m. because of the ongoing work to restore power and clean up downed trees and wires.
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