Crews work to restore power after winter storm

Demetrios Sanders
·3 min read

WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — Thousands are waiting to have their power restored after this week’s winter storm caused outages in portions of West Michigan.

“We want people to know that we won’t rest until their power is back on and we’ll be ready for the next one. As soon as it hits, we’ll hit,” Greg Salisbury, vice president of electric distribution engineering for Consumers Energy, said.

The Jackson-based utility said round 65,000 households statewide to lose power, with areas like northern Muskegon County, Newaygo County and northern Kent County hit the hardest. Around 5:30 p.m., the Consumers Energy interactive power map showed that hundreds of customers were experiencing outages in the following counties:

  • Kent: 331

  • Montcalm: 795

  • Muskegon: 2,055

  • Newaygo: 513

  • Ottawa: 395

Inside woodtv.com: Consumers Energy power outage map

Among those who lost power was Hudsonville resident Van Nguyen. He said it blinked out around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

“After that, they kicked in back on in a couple of hours, and it turned it off again,” he said.

Salisbury blamed the outages on “heavy, wet snow” bringing down tree limbs and, therefore, power lines.

“We anticipated and forecasted this storm. We knew it was going to be heavy, wet, snow, just barely above freezing. We expected outages from Grand Rapids up to the East Tawas area, and that’s what happened,” he said. “So we were ready last night. We had crews start restoring at about 10 p.m. We’ve been restoring all night, adding crews.”

What to do during a power outage

Consumers said it had more than 600 lineworkers and contractors working “around the clock.” As of 1 p.m., power had been restored to more than half of the customers who had lost it. The utility said most of the remaining outages should be fixed by Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

“We’re continuing to work to safely restore power to most customers affected by this week’s winter storm by the end of today,” Melissa Gleespen, Consumers’ officer in charge of restoration, said in a late afternoon statement. “Our crews are prioritizing school restorations to enable students to return to school Thursday.”

People are reminded to stay away from downed power lines. If you see one, call Consumers and 911.

Consumers is also preparing for more winter weather this weekend.

Possible blizzard, dangerous cold on the horizon

“We have a group of people that we’ve set aside and said, ‘OK, don’t worry about this storm, you focus on the next one,'” Salisbury said. “And so they’re going to be looking at weather models and making sure we have the right materials, resources and plans in place to get into that storm on the weekend.”

The city of Kalamazoo reminded people that warming shelters are available at:

  • Ministry with Community at 500 N. Edwards St.: 6 a.m. to 4: 30 p.m. Monday through Sunday. The site has breakfast, lunch, showers and laundry facilities.

  • Westminster Presbyterian Church at 1515 Helen Ave.: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursday in the Fellowship Hall area. Food is provided.

  • Kalamazoo Gospel Mission at 448 N. Burdick St.: 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Entrance at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.

  • The Salvation Army at 1700 S. Burdick St.: 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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