More than Two Thirds of Consumers Energy Customers Restored After Successful Day of Restoration
More than Two Thirds of Consumers Energy Customers Restored After Successful Day of Restoration
Jackson, Mich. Friday, December 17, 2021
Energy provider to continue hosting community events tomorrow in Northern Michigan to thank customers
Consumers Energy crews have restored more than 130,000 customers affected by severe winds that battered Michigan Wednesday night and Thursday, and crews will continue their all-hands-on-deck effort through the night.
Nearly 500 crews, including some from Canada, Ohio and Indiana, joined to help restore power to customers in the aftermath of a windstorm that packed gusts up to 75 miles per hour and knocked down trees, limbs and more than 2,400 power lines and also snapped 170 poles.
“We’ve made great progress today, and expect favorable weather conditions and continued momentum overnight,” said Guy Packard, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm event. “We thank our customers for their continued patience as we work safely – around the clock – to fully restore all customers as quickly as possible.”
Severe winds hit west and northwest lower Michigan late Wednesday night and continued through Thursday evening. In total, more than 191,000 customers lost power due to the windstorm.
To thank customers in especially hard-hit areas for their patience, Consumers Energy held three community events earlier today in northern Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula, in Falmouth, and in Mancelona.
Community events – compliments of Consumers Energy – also are planned in the greater Mesick, Grant, Roscommon, Houghton Lake Heights and Beulah communities on Saturday, Dec. 18:
- From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mesick High School (581 Clark St. in Mesick), enjoy one free barbecue meal per person supplied by the Smoke Show, LLC food truck.
- From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Grant Community Center (105 S. Front St. in Grant), receive a free pizza slice, cookie, coffee or water per person.
- From noon to 3 p.m. at Fred’s of Roscommon (422 N. 5th St. in Roscommon), enjoy one free large cheese or pepperoni pizza per family.
- From 4-7 p.m. at Better Pizza (7272 W. Houghton Lake Dr. in Houghton Lake Heights), get one free large pizza per family.
- From 5-7 p.m. at A. Papano’s Pizza (7803 Crystal Dr. in Beulah), enjoy up to two pizza slices and one soda free per person.
For more about upcoming events, visit Facebook.com/ConsumersEnergyMichigan
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
Packard urged the public to exercise caution around downed wires. Guidance includes watching for downed wires while traveling, staying at least 25 feet away from downed wires, and reporting downed wire issues by first calling 9-1-1 and then calling Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050. Consumers Energy asks the public to keep a safe distance from crews given health precautions and to enable them to complete 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 – a free statewide service – if you are looking for help connecting to assistance resources in your community.
- Never use a generator in an attached garage, basement or enclosed patio, or near 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, cleanup 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 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 cable.
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Media Contacts: Josh Paciorek, 517-243-9036, or Terry DeDoes, (517) 243-9908
The next news release is scheduled for 7 a.m. Saturday, Dec.18.