Freezing Rain Causes Hazardous Travel, Power Outages
A mix of freezing rain, sleet, and snow descended on the Great Lakes Bay Region early this morning. The icing moved eastward into the Thumb Region around 9 this morning and the Tri-City area saw a change over to snow. But the icing caused slippery roads and brought down trees along eastbound U.S. 10 w of Midland and along Meridian, Sturgeon, and Stark Roads in Midland County. Numerous limbs and downed wires knocked out power to thousands along a swath from Mt.Pleasant to Midland and Auburn. 1,540 Consumers Energy Customers were without power in the Auburn area while nearly 3,000 lost power in Midland County. Consumers has crews working on power restoration with estimates ranging from noon to midnight to early Monday morning in the most isolated pockets.
While the entire Saginaw, Bay, and Midland area was under the advisory for up to .25 inches of icing, the brunt of the problems were in an area around Midland and Auburn. Consumers is also dealing with outages in other areas around Mt. Pleasant and elsewhere in the state. No serious crashes have been reported as of mid Sunday morning. But authorities were advising people to avoid any unnecessary travel. 2-5 inches snow may accumulate across the Great Lakes Bay Region today into tonight with heavier accumulations to the north in the Lower Peninsula.