Consumers Energy crews working to restore power after high winds strike Michigan

Consumers Energy crews are working to restore power to homes and business after a storm with high winds swept through Michigan on Saturday.

The goal is to restore power to all 50,000 customers by the end of the day Sunday.

“Winds that exceeded 50 MPH today knocked down branches, limbs and entire trees from the Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids area moving north and east across the state. Our commitment is to get the lights back on for everyone, as quickly and as safely as we can,” said Tim Sparks, Consumers Energy’s Officer in Charge for this storm.

“We appreciate the patience of everyone who has been affected, and we take seriously our job to restore power,” Sparks said.

As of Saturday afternoon, Consumers Energy has put 400 people to work in restoring power and working with customers, including over 100 crews and electric service workers. Additional crews will be joining this evening.

Customers can report an outage and check the status of outage by visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter. They 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.

Sparks urged people to stay at least 25 feet away from any downed power line, and especially to keep children and pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050. Consumers Energy also asks the public to keep a safe distance from crews.

Consumers Energy urges 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.
• 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.

Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest energy provider, providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.7 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.