Utility Crews Work Through The Night To Restore Power

Consumers Energy crews worked through the night to restore power to more than 86 percent of impacted customers by Monday morning. With Sunday’s favorable weather conditions, crews worked around the clock to restore power to another 41,000 customers. In total, crews have restored power to 125,000 customers since Saturday morning.

“With crews continuing to work through the night, we expect to be in the home stretch
Monday  and will look to finish restoring a majority of all customers by tonight,” said Tim Sparks, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm event. “At this evening’s community events, we
expressed how grateful we were for our customers’ continued patience as crews work tirelessly on restoration efforts.” Consumers Energy team members hosted community events in Ionia, Cedar Springs, Carson City, Spring Arbor, and Flint earlier Sunday to thank customers for their patience
and cooperation.

Saturday’s wind storm featured 55 miles per hour gusts and impacted more than 150,000
customers across the lower peninsula. 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.

The company staged more than 370 crews, including 50 mutual assistance crews, storm
trailers, and mobile command centers, throughout the central portion of Consumers service
territory.

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.

As restoration efforts continue, Sparks 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.