KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Consumers Energy says it’s launched a large-scale restoration effort as over 410 crews mobilized to the hardest-hit areas of the state after a severe thunderstorm with damaging winds swept across Michigan this morning. Crews from Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Illinois will also be pitching in to get the power back on safely and as quickly as possible.
“The damage created by this storm is widespread and significant,” said Chris Laird, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for restoration. “We are moving every resource that we can into place ― including crews from our energy industry peers in the Midwest ― to ensure we can safely turn the lights back on for our customers.”
The storm this morning moved across Michigan, causing damage and affecting over 155,000 customers. Most of those were in the Muskegon, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo areas, as well as communities in the northeast Lower Peninsula. The company responded quickly and, as of 4:00 p.m., has restored power to than 40,000 affected customers.
Most customers should get power back by noon Thursday, with all customers in the hardest-hit areas restored by the end of the day Thursday.
The company has set up mobile response units in Muskegon, Coopersville and Hale to better assess storm damage and speed safe restoration efforts in those regions.
Meantime Indiana Michigan Power says it has restored power to more than 75% of about 16,000 customers who lost service as a result of this morning’s thunderstorm that knocked down a number of wires in southwest Michigan and the South Bend/Elkhart area.
About 500 I&M employees and contractors have been working throughout the day to restore power. The damaging storms knocked down more than 200 spans of wires and broke or damaged at least 20 poles.
At its peak, more than 11,000 customers were without power this morning. Additional outages occurred when the storm moved southwest from Michigan to South Bend/Elkhart to other areas I&M serves.
Restoration work in the Three Rivers, Michigan area June 25, 2024 (courtesy Indiana Michigan Power)
As of 5:00 p.m., about 3,500 customers remained without service, including about 1,000 in the Three Revers area of St. Joseph County. I&M expects to have service restored to more than 90% of affected customers by 11:00 p.m. tonight.
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