Power Restored to 105,000, Work Continues Through the Night

A Consumers Energy lineman works on power restoration.  Consumers Energy photo.

(August 30, 2022 10:34 PM) Consumers Energy crews are continuing their round-the-clock work late Tuesday, having returned power to over 105,000 homes and businesses affected by this week’s damaging storm.

“We are grateful for our customers’ patience as our crews continue working tonight. We know it’s not easy to be without power in your home or business, and we want people to know we’re committed to finishing our work as safely and as fast as we can,” said Amanda Wagenschutz, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm restoration work.

As of 9:30 p.m., about 68,000 out of 175,000 affected customers remained without power. In Jackson County, 15,688 are without power.  Wagenschutz said the goal is for crews to return power to most of those customers by the end of the day Wednesday. Some work will continue into Thursday in communities most badly damaged by this week’s high winds.

To support customers affected by the storm, Consumers Energy is providing water and ice to people in Jackson from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at Keeley Park, and ice cream to Battle Creek residents from 4 to 6 p.m. The public can learn more on Consumers Energy’s Facebook page.

Wagenschutz also encouraged the public to be mindful of crews working overnight and to continue looking out for potentially deadly downed power lines. Wagenschutz urged people to stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines, keep children and pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050.

It’s also important to stay away from anything a downed power line is touching. Consumers Energy urges the public to also 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 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.

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.