HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — More outages were created by overnight storms: two in Holland. Great Lakes Energy, which had more then 400 outages Saturday, July 20, 2019, in Allegan County, reduced the number to 330 by Sunday morning, with more than 4,700 outages affecting more than 124,000 customers throughout GLE’s service area. Consumers Energy’s outage map shows more than 3,300 outages affecting more than 121,000 customers as of 8 a.m. Sunday.
More than 212,000 Consumers’ customers’ homes and businesses have been affected by the weekend storms, utility officials say. The energy provider continues to stress the importance of safety to the public as a second full day of restoration work starts.
“We’re encouraged by the impact that our crews made overnight and into this morning, with power restored to many of our customers who were affected by these violent storms,” said Guy Packard, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric operations. “We are grateful for the patience of the Michigan residents that we serve, and we’re committed to restoring power to everyone as quickly as we can.”
As of 5:30 a.m. today, about 121,000 Consumers Energy customers were without power. Severe weather that included high winds, lightning and hail has been responsible for over 2,600 downed wires across Michigan since Friday night. Consumers Energy is working to restore power to all affected customers by the end of the day Tuesday.
Over 1,400 Consumers Energy employees and contractors are involved in the effort to restore power, from lineworkers to call center representatives. They include about 120 employees from energy providers based in Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky who arrived in Michigan on Saturday.
Today, Consumers Energy volunteers will hand out ice and water in Jenison, near Grand Rapids, a community that storms hit especially hard. Consumers Energy also is highlighting the availability of cooling centers and other resources. The public can find the locations of cooling centers across Michigan at www.ConsumersEnergy.com/outages/extreme-heat.
Packard urged customers and the general public to stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines, keep children or pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 or Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050.
Consumers officials urge the public to keep these important safety tips in mind:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 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 customers can 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.
- Customers can also report an outage, check the status of an outage and get useful tips for what to do after a storm by visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter.
Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest energy provider, with 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.
