Weather conditions on Monday were ideal for Consumers Energy crews to repair damaged power lines and restore power to customers after heavy storms over the weekend. In a press release Consumers Energy detailed the efforts already underway:
JACKSON, Mich., July 22, 2019 – Consumers Energy crews are continuing to work 16-hour shifts today in the aftermath of a fierce, damaging storm system over the weekend. They have restored 184,000 out of 220,000 electric customers affected by outages.
“We appreciate the patience of our customers as we work around the clock to replace damaged poles, repair electric lines and perform other work to return electric service to our valued business and residential customers,” said Guy Packard, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric operations. “Our crews will continue in ‘storm mode’ working 16-hour shifts until all our customers have been restored. Aided by nearly ideal weather conditions overnight and this morning, forecast to continue, we’ve been able to make exceptional gains in getting power back on for our customers across our service territory.”
The storm system that began Friday evening and continued Saturday pummeled the state with fierce winds, lightning, flooding rains and hail, and knocked out power to over 220,000 homes and businesses. More than 2,800 downed wires have been attributed to the storm.
As of 11 a.m. today, about 36,000 customers are affected by storm-related outages. The majority of those customers will be restored by the end of the day Tuesday.
Packard emphasized that the more than 1,700 employees working in Michigan on behalf of Consumers Energy customers – including workers from energy providers from six other states – are taking safety precautions to protect co-workers, customers, the general public and to return safely to their families.
He urged 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 Energy also urges 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, 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.
