Consumers Energy Work Continues Overnight to Restore Customers Affected by Three Rounds of Storms

Jackson, Mich. Friday, June 12, 2020

After restoring 37,000 customers on Friday alone, Consumers Energy crews will be working through the night to return service to the remaining 49,000 homes and businesses affected by a series of severe thunderstorms that swept across Michigan this week.

The majority of crews and equipment are focused on Calhoun and Branch counties as restoration enters its final day Saturday. For example, the company’s three mobile storm trailers, semi-trucks providing supplies to crews directly in the field, are in Calhoun and Branch counties. Earlier, the company established a separate branch of its Incident Command System structure focused solely on the heavily hit area.

“The damage across both counties is extensive and has made our restoration work more complex,” said Guy Packard, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric operations, who was in the area Friday. “We appreciate not only our customers’ patience, but the partnership and communication with our local governmental officials as we proceed with this restoration in a safe manner.”

As of 9:15 p.m. Friday, about 49,000 customers remained without service. Those customers not restored tonight, primarily in the areas with heavier damage, including Branch, Calhoun, Kent, Jackson and Saginaw counties, will have their power back by late Saturday.

Since Tuesday afternoon, more than 270,000 customers have been affected by the severe weather which brought winds exceeding 70 mph, toppling trees along with nearly 5,000 electric wires, and breaking more than 300 poles. Nearly 2,000 Consumers Energy employees, in-state contractors and crews from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Alabama are involved in the restoration effort. They include lineworkers and damage assessors to call center representatives and forestry crews.

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 wires, 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 continues to remind 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.

Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.7 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

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Media Contact:  Roger Morgenstern, 517-499-6320

The next news release is scheduled for approximately 6 a.m. Saturday