Consumers Energy Crews Halfway to Fully Restoring Customers

JACKSON, Mich., Dec. 17, 2021 – Consumers Energy aided by out of state crews and favorable weather conditions today, have restored power to more than half of the more than 190,000 customers impacted by the windstorm that ripped through the state.

About 420 crews, including 76 crews from Indiana, Ohio and Canada, have worked round the clock to restore about 98,000 customers who had their power knocked out due to 65 to 75-mile-per-hour winds.

“We thank our customers for their patience as our restoration efforts continue throughout the day,” said Christine Wisniewski, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm event. “We have made significant progress and are committed to working non-stop to fully restore all of our customers as soon as possible.”

Severe winds hit west and northwest lower Michigan late Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning. Winds caused severe damage, knocking down trees, limbs and over 2,400 power lines, snapping 170 poles. We are expecting more than 70 additional contractor crews to our system today.

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

Wisniewski urged people to pay close attention while traveling for possible downed wires, and to stay at least 25 feet away from them, keep children or pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050. Consumers Energy asks the public to keep a safe distance from crews due to health precautions and to allow them to do 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 if you are looking for help connecting to 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. 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, 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 which 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.