Consumers Energy Crews Restore Power to Three-Fourths of Affected Customers

A downed tree remains across Fourth Street in Jackson on Thursday afternoon.  JTV photo.

(August 4, 2022 9:57 PM) Consumers Energy crews will continue working through the night after restoring power to three-fourths of Michigan homes and businesses affected by a major summer storm this week. Over 230 crews have now restored power to about 66,000 customers.

“We are grateful for the patience of our customers who count on us, and we want to reward that patience by working around the clock until we restore power to everyone,” said Guy Packard, Consumers Energy’s officer in charge for today’s power restoration work. “Our crews are committed to the final stretch of the work from this storm and plan to finish the job Friday.”

More than 88,000 Consumers Energy customers have been affected by this week’s weather, featuring wind gusts that reached 60 mph. As of 9:30 p.m., about 22,000 were without power.  In Jackson County, 5,533 customers are without power.

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.

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

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 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.