Crews working to restore power to last of customers amid bitter cold

Utility crews will be working to restore the last Michigan customers without power amid the bitter cold Sunday evening and early Monday.

Michigan’s first major storm of the season began Friday with heavy snow and strong winds that left as many as 170,000 customers without power, and continued into Saturday with a second phase of the storm.

At 2:30 p.m. Sunday DTE Energy reported 21,183 customers without power and Consumers Energy reported 14,796.

At 2:30 p.m. Michigan dropped to the state with the third highest outages in the country with 36,430, according to PowerOutage.us.

Oregon continued to have the most power outages with 163,032, followed by Pennsylvania with 80,372. Wisconsin was fouth with 25,965 and Texas was fifth with 14,729.

DTE said in a release Sunday that 95% of customers should have their power restored by the end of the day. 

“Thousands of DTE employees and more than 900 contract linemen from across the country continue to work to restore customers impacted by this weekend’s extreme weather,” DTE said in the release.

“We know how difficult being without power is. We are doing everything possible to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.”

Consumers Energy said its crews were also working hard to restore power.

“We’re making steady progress as we work safely to bring power back to the homes and businesses we serve as quickly as possible,” Melissa Gleespen, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge of restoration, said in a release Saturday.

“Mother Nature continues to create a demanding work environment, but our crews are up to the challenge and committed to helping and protecting our customers. We thank our customers and communities for their continued patience.”

In northern Michigan, near Grand Rapids and cities closer to Lake Michigan, 3 to 6 additional inches of snow may come Sunday, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service Grand Rapids.

According to a tweet from the National Weather Service Detroit on Sunday, temperatures are expected to be below 20 degrees Fahrenheit through Wednesday.

The tweet said, “dangerously cold artic air settles across the region this week,” and that people should “limit time spent outdoors to avoid frostbite and hypothermia.”

On Monday, snow may return with temperatures between 7 and 15 degrees.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the weather service predicts that temperatures won’t surpass 20 degrees and wind chill will make temperatures feel as low as -20 degrees Fahrenheit.