Severe weather toppled trees, which tore down power lines, and left tens of thousands of Michiganders without power Tuesday morning.
As of 10:30 a.m., the Consumers Energy outage map showed more than 153,000 customers had lost electricity.
"North Muskegon, Muskegon County, inward into Kent County got really hit hard with very strong winds," Consumers spokesperson Katie Carey told Michigan Public's Morning Edition. " We're seeing reports of 65 to 70-mile-an-hour winds that hit customers in those regions."
The storms also left a number of outages near Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. As the weather system moved across the Lower Peninsula, Consumers reported another large cluster of outages in Northern Michigan near Oscoda along Lake Huron.
Carey said Consumers was aware of hundreds of downed power lines in Muskegon, Kent, and Kalamazoo counties alone.
"If you see a downed power line, stay 25 feet away and call 911. Even if we get multiple reports, that's better than having somebody accidentally touch a downed power line," she said.
The storms were also passing through parts of Southern Michigan and Metro Detroit. As of 11:10 a.m., DTE Energy reported nearly 7000 customers without electricity.
Editors note: Consumers Energy and DTE Energy are among Michigan Public's corporate sponsors.
