Consumers Energy Crews Working to Restore Power to 163,000 After Rounds of Storms

(June 10, 2020 4:59 PM) Consumers Energy is working to restore power after storms with powerful winds moved across much of Lower Michigan Tuesday night and again Wednesday afternoon, cutting power to more than 163,000 customers, as of 4:30 p.m.

As additional storms are expected through Wednesday evening, the energy provider is asking for customers’ patience as restoration work continues. It is expected that restoration work will continue through Friday for most of the customers impacted. However, restoration for some of the hardest-hit areas may continue through the weekend. Wind gusts in storms earlier Wednesday in West Michigan topped 70 mph near Holland.

“Since Tuesday night, we’ve restored over 50,000 customers but we are experiencing more storms and outages through this evening, so we appreciate our customers’ patience,” said Guy Packard, Consumers Energy vice president for electric operations.

Customers can report an outage, check the status of an outage and get useful tips what to do after a storm 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.

Packard urged customers and the public to 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. Consumers Energy crews are taking extra health and safety precautions because of the COVID-19 situation and asks the public to keep at least six feet of distance from its crews.

Consumers Energy also urges the public to keep these 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 temporary shelter or other 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.
• 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.