LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) — Consumers Energy says it could take crews until Sunday to restore service to the hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses that lost power during high winds Wednesday.
As of 9 a.m., more than 184,000 customers statewide were without power — down from more than 217,000 on Wednesday. Consumers Energy said in a release Thursday morning that lighter winds were helping improve conditions for crews working to restore power.
“In terms of customer numbers, it’s the most since Christmas of 2015, when we had about 161,000 people out. It’s going to go down as one of our larger, our larger events,” Consumers Energy spokesman Roger Morgenstern said.
He told 24 Hour News 8 that the strong winds snapped more than 500 poles and downed more than 3,000 wires across the state.
“I can’t emphasize enough that if people come upon a downed wire to call 911 and to give Consumers Energy a call, too,” he said.
Kent County was the hardest hit area in West Michigan, with more than 21,000 homes and businesses affected as of Thursday morning, according to Consumers Energy’s outage map.
Outage numbers in West Michigan by county:
- Allegan: 4,803
- Barry: 9,197
- Branch: 3,393
- Calhoun: 10,533
- Ionia: 10,052
- Kalamazoo: 9,273
- Kent: 21,988
- Mecosta: 1,262
- Montcalm: 4,250
- Muskegon: 342
- Newaygo: 1,322
- Ottawa: 2,114
- St. Joseph: 376
- Van Buren: 687