Thousands of utility customers without power in Lansing area following storms

Update (8 p.m. Tuesday): Utility crews were making progress clearing outages caused by Monday's severe storms.

About 4,700 Consumers Energy customers remained without power in Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties, with Ingham County accounting for about 3,200 of those customers, according to the utility's outage map.

That total was down from about 9,900 five hours earlier.

Thousands of DTE Energy customers in eastern Ingham County and western Livingston County remained without power, according DTE's outage map.

Update (3:25 p.m. Tuesday):

Thousands remained without power Tuesday in Greater Lansing and hundreds of thousands more across the Lower Peninsula, one day after powerful storms surged eastward across southern lower Michigan.

The storm was formed by multiple thunderstorms, what meteorologists refer to as a "squall line," according to Andrew Dixon, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.

"It was an unbroken line of storms that moved onshore from Lake Michigan and moved all the way across the Lower Peninsula," Dixon said.

Michigan officials have reported one death in the storm's wake. A 14-year-old girl died from electrocution after touching a downed powerline, Monroe police said Monday night.

Winds were strongest when making immediate landfall near Holland, Dixon said, with gusts reaching 60-70 mph. Inland areas such as Greater Lansing — but also Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Jackson — saw less intense winds, but they were still strong enough to do damage.

"What that did was bring down trees and powerlines. That was the main type of damage," Dixon said.

Consumers Energy provides energy to much of the southern Lower Peninsula, save for southeast Michigan and the southwestern corner. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, about 97,500 customers did not have electricity, according to the utility company's outage map.

Across Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties, more than 9,900 Consumers Energy users were without electricity as of 3:15 p.m. Tuesday. The most affected area was Holt and Aurelius Township, where a handful of outages each affected hundreds and, in two cases, thousands of the utility company's customers.

Also affected by the Consumers outages were hundreds of households in the areas around Charlotte and Grand Ledge, and more than 200 customers in DeWitt.

"We were able to get 40,000 customers restored overnight and that good progress has continued today, and the groups have been aided by favorable weather," Terry DeDoes, spokesperson for Consumers Energy. "We're hoping by the end of the day we'll surpass the halfway mark in our restoration efforts."

DeDoes also urged people to stay 25 feet from downed wires, and if spotted, to report them to law enforcement or utility company officials. He estimated that the workers had found about 2,000 downed wires since the onset of the storms.

DTE Energy serves much of southeastern Michigan, extending westward to Williamston and Meridian Township. As of noon, about 265,000 customers had not yet regained power across its service area.

In Greater Lansing, about 3,000 DTE Energy customers were also without power, primarily around Meridian Township and Williamston, according to the company's outage map. About 1,000 customers also lacked power near Webberville.

The company had designated 1,000 employees and 1,000 people from out-of-state crews to restore outages based on urgency, DTE Energy spokesperson Dana Blankenship said. They are starting with hospitals, police, schools and outages affecting large numbers of households and businesses.

"We have an estimate to restore 80% of customers by the end of day Thursday," Blankenship said. "And then it will be tackling the smaller outages that are typically more unique and have smaller amounts of customers affected."

Original story (9 p.m. Monday):

Vicious storms swept across southern lower Michigan Monday, downing trees and utility lines and leaving more than 16,000 utility customers without power in the Lansing area alone.

About 160,000 Consumers Energy customers were without power across the company's service area as of 7 p.m., with more than 14,000 of those in Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties, according to the utility's outage map.

More than 9,000 Consumers customers in Ingham County were affected by outages Monday evening, while more than 3,900 customers lost service in Eaton County, the utility said. More than 1,100 customers in Clinton County also lost power.

DTE Energy's outage map showed thousands of customers without electrical service in eastern Ingham County and western Livingston County, although the utility's map does not provide specific numbers.

The Lansing Board of Water & Light reported 126 customers without service as of 6 p.m.

Emergency personnel responded to numerous reports of downed trees and utility lines Monday. Police closed some streets or roads because of fallen trees or downed lines. There also was a report of a train hitting downed wires in Eaton County. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The National Weather Service issued several warnings for the Lansing region after a line of fast-moving thunderstorms came ashore from Lake Michigan about 3:30 p.m. and swept east across the state. The last of those warnings expired at 5:45 p.m.

The weather service said most of the storm damage was in southern Lower Michigan, although the rain extended almost to the tip of the Lower Peninsula, according to radar images. Wind speeds of 50 mph to 60 mph were generally seen, with the highest being 66 mph in Holland, the agency said.

"That type of wind is consistent with bringing trees and limbs onto power lines," said Bob Dukesherer, a forecaster for the weather service in Grand Rapids.

The storms formed ahead of a cold front that remained west of Lake Michigan on Monday evening, he said.

"(The severe weather) was formed off a line of storms that occurred overnight in Iowa and Wisconsin," Dukesherer said. "The outflow from that touched all of this off, raced through some pretty good instability and created all of our severe weather."

There were social media reports of a funnel cloud being spotted in the Lansing area when the storms arrived. As of Monday evening, Dukesherer said there had been no confirmed reports of tornadoes.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Severe thunderstorm leave thousands in Lansing area without electricity