Sever weather ripped through West Michigan Thursday morning, leaving behind downed trees, power lines and light posts, along with power outages.
At around 2 a.m. Thursday, Allegan, Van Buren, Kalamazoo, Berrien, Cass and St. Joseph counties were placed under a severe thunderstorm watch. Following the storms, 13 ON YOUR SIDE received reports of downed power lines and trees in Allegan County, along with a downed light pole in Ottawa County.
According to the Consumers Energy Outage Map, outages were reported across the state, especially in Allegan and Kalamazoo Counties. At 5:50 a.m., Consumers Energy reported 2,281 customers without power in Allegan County and 2,145 in Kalamazoo.
The severe weather is having an impact on Lake Michigan, with beach hazard statements in effect for multiple counties through Friday. Currently, statements are in effect through Friday morning for Mason, Oceana, Muskegon, Ottawa, Allegan and Van Buren counties.
The National Weather Service is expecting high waves and strong currents, along with dangerous swimming conditions and swamped piers. Strong currents can pull swimmers into deeper water and high waves can sweep people off piers.
The NWS is asking people to stay out of the water and off any piers.
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