12/13/21 - Consumers Energy Works To Restore Power Today

More customers are getting their power restored following high winds over the weekend.

JACKSON, Mich., Dec. 13, 2021 – (Consumers Energy Press Release) -  Aided by favorable conditions and increased crews, Consumers Energy made great progress overnight to restore more than 90 percent of impacted customers. Nearly 354 crews worked through last night to restore power to another 12,000 customers, since our last update. In total, crews have restored power to 137,000 customers since Saturday morning with just over 14,000 remaining.

“Our goal remains to get every customer, resident and business, restored by the end of the day today and we are on target to hit that goal,” said Melissa Gleespen, one of Consumers Energy's Officers in Charge for the storm event.  “I would like to thank our customers for their patience while we work to restore power and our crews for working safely to ensure every customer gets their lights back on.”

Saturday’s wind storm featured 55 miles per hour gusts and impacted more than 150,000 customers across the lower peninsula. Severe weather swept through Michigan knocking out power along the lakeshore, moving across mid and southern Michigan yesterday morning. The hardest hit areas in Michigan include: Midland, Flint, Carson City, Grand Rapids, Greenville, Alma and Ionia. Winds have knocked down trees, limbs, broken 192 poles, and damaged over 2,200 power lines.

The company has 354 crews, including 47 mutual assistance crews, storm trailers, and mobile command centers, throughout the central portion of our service territory. 

Consumers Energy team members also hosted community events yesterday in Ionia, Cedar Springs, Carson City, Spring Arbor, and Flint to thank customers for their patience and cooperation.

As restoration efforts continue, Gleespen urged people to pay attention and be mindful of downed power lines. If you see one, 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. Someone will respond as quickly as possible to secure the scene. Consumers Energy asks the public to keep a safe distance from crews due to health precautions and to allow them to do their work.

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 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.

Customers can report an outage and check the status of outage 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.