Consumers Reports Half of Customers Power Restored From Saturday Outages
Consumers Energy Restoration crews worked through the night to restore power to 84,000 customers following, a severe storm featuring high winds over 55 miles per hour swept quickly through Michigan Saturday morning, causing damage and knocking out power to over 150,000 customers.
“Our crews worked completed great work through the night and we are looking forward to favorable weather today to continue to restore power for residents and businesses,” said Melissa Gleespen, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm event. “We have also added crews to our system from Mutual Assistance that will enable us to have a successful day of restoration.”
A majority of customers still impacted are expected to be restored by the end of the day Monday. Customers can report an outage and check the status of outage by visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter. Customers can also sign up to get outage alerts and restoration times sent to a phone, email or text message, Text ‘REG’ to 232273 or visit www.ConsumersEnergy.com/alerts.
Severe weather swept through Michigan knocking out power along the lakeshore, moving across mid and southern Michigan Saturday morning. The hardest hit areas in Michigan include: Midland, Flint, Carson City, Grand Rapids, Greenville, Alma and Ionia. Winds have knocked down trees, limbs, broken 192 poles and damaged over 2,200 power lines.
Gleespen urged people to pay attention and be mindful of downed power lines. If you see one, stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines, keep children or pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050. Someone will respond as quickly as possible to secure the scene. Consumers Energy asks the public to keep a safe distance from crews due to health precautions and to allow them to do their work.
Consumers Energy also asks the public to keep important safety tips in mind:
- Be alert to crews working along 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 you are looking for help connecting to resources that offer 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 which holds the electric service wires to a customer’s 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.
