MICHIGAN, USA — Strong winds and storms in Michigan has left hundreds of thousands of people without power across the area.
As of Saturday evening, Consumers Energy says more than 119,000 Michiganders have been effected by the storms. More than 2,000 are currently without power.
Many are experiencing property damage as well. Power lines have fallen into back or front yards, and some in the streets. Trees are also being reported to have fallen.
Areas in Kent City and Grand Rapids' west side were hard hit tonight. Restoration in those areas may not come until Sunday morning.
“Consumers Energy was prepared for this storm and had crews ready to respond ahead of this all-day wind event,” said Scott McIntosh, Consumers Energy’s officer in charge tonight for restoring power. “We had our crews pre-staged across our service area to speed our storm response and we are mobilizing with all hands on deck to make repairs safely and restore service for our customers as quickly as possible.”
Consumers Energy also asks the public to keep important safety tips in mind as they wait for their power to be restored:
- Be alert to crews working along the roads. Drivers should slow down or stop and wait for oncoming traffic to clear so they safely can go past workers on roadsides.
- Call 2-1-1 if looking for help connecting to resources offering assistance in your community. 2-1-1 is a free statewide service.
- 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 report an outage and check the status of outage, click here.
You can also sign up to get outage alerts and restoration times sent to a phone, email or text message by texting ‘REG' to 232273 or click here.
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