Consumers Energy in 'final push' to restore power to customers in the dark since Thursday
DIMONDALE — Consumers Energy officials said they expects the remaining customers without power due to last week's storms to be back with electricity by tonight, officials said.
As of noon on Monday, the Consumer's outage tracker estimated about 26,000 homes and businesses across lower Michigan still without power. In the Lansing area all but one outage east of US-127 appeared to be resolved, with the exception of about 170 customers along Holt Road in Alaiedon Township. However, areas in west of US-127 in the Holt and Mason areas and large swaths of Eaton County from Eaton Rapids north to Grand Ledge and west to Portland had multiple outages with well over 5,000 homes and businesses still in the dark, according to the company's outage map.
Consumers officials said during a Monday morning news conference that crews have been working around the clock and expect a full return of service by 11 p.m. tonight.
Consumers initially had about 200,000 customers without power, including more than 40,000 in the Lansing area. Officials had said they estimated restoration for everyone by Sunday night before revising that estimate in a 4 p.m. Sunday news release to later Monday.
“Today is all about the final push and executing safely to restore power for our remaining customers who have been so patient in challenging circumstances,” said Scott McIntosh, one of Consumers Energy’s officers in charge for the storm.
The outage map for the Lansing Board of Water and Light estimated about 7,300 customers without power from 525 outages, down from about 33,000 initially. BWL General Manager Dick Peffley had estimated power would be restored to all customers by Tuesday but he said the utility expected to finish sooner.
DTE Energy said it had restored power to most customers, although it's online outage map showed about 500 customers in the Williamston and Webberville areas were without electricity.
"We have restored the vast majority of customers. Remaining outages in areas where extreme damage occurred to electrical equipment should be restored today," the company said in a statement.
Severe storms hit the Lansing area on Thursday night and included a tornado that the National Weather Service graded as an EF2 with winds up to 125 miles per hour.
Two people died in the storms, including 84-year-old Vernita Payne who died in her Lansing home, which was struck by a tree, and a 40-year-old Grand Rapids man who was on Interstate 96 near Williamston when the tornado crossed over the highway, stranding drivers and leaving the road strewn with debris in its wake.
Local and state officials have declared states of emergency following the storms. Total costs from damage and cleanup are still unknown.
Check back for updates.
Contact reporter Matt Mencarini at 517-377-1026 or mjmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattMencarini.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Consumers Energy in 'final push' to restore power to customers in the dark since Thursday
