Powerful winds and thunderstorms struck Michigan Sunday evening, uprooting trees, downing limbs, and knocking out power lines.
As of 8:00 a.m. Monday, DTE Energy reported more than 22,000 customers were without power in southeast Michigan and the Thumb region. In an online post, DTE said it expected 95% of its affected customers to have power back by the end of Monday. At the same time, Consumers Energy had a total of more than 176,000 people without electricity.
Consumers Energy spokesperson Katie Carey joined Michigan Public Morning Edition host Doug Tribou for an update on restoration work.
Doug Tribou: In the Consumers Energy service area, there’s a major band of outages from north of Grand Rapids across the Lower Peninsula to the Flint area and south to the Ohio border. What's the extent of the damage there?
Katie Carey: Yeah, we saw three distinct waves of weather all with different characteristics sweep through our service territory, which comprises most of the Lower Peninsula, throughout the entire weekend. The band that you are talking about came through very quickly [Sunday] afternoon into the evening hours and resulted in over 130,000 of our customers that experienced high wind gusts, thunderstorms and even reports of tornadoes.
DT: What's the timeline for getting power restored in that section of the state?
KC: We're hoping the majority of customers can be restored by the end of the day on Tuesday, but there will be some hardest hit areas that head into the Wednesday date.
DT: So as we're speaking, Consumers is reporting more than 160,000 customers without power. Those numbers include some large outages in Northern Michigan; the northeast corner of the Lower Peninsula from an earlier ice storm. Many of those outages began on Saturday. What's the situation there?
KC: There was so much damage done. If you see any of the photos or the videos, nearly an inch of ice hung on trees and on our power lines, taking them down. So unfortunately, the power restoration has gone a little bit slower just because our crews have had a hard time even reaching to where our damage on the system is.
But we have over 600 crews that we have split between the northern restoration and the southern restoration. And they're out there working in 16-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, to be able to get our customers' power restored.
DT: Does the response in northern Michigan affect the timeline in southern Michigan or vice versa?
KC: No, we're hitting very similar trajectories. We're seeing it's just a different outage system. You can imagine trying to navigate through icy conditions, versus in the southern part of the state it's much different weather-wise. And our crews are able to get right to the spot to be able to restore power. So no, and in fact they will work hand in hand additionally as things wrap up in northern Michigan. Any crews that we have will move to the south. We're not releasing any crews until every last customer is restored.
DT: But does that slow things for the northern Michigan residents, where the southern crews are not able to respond in a way they would have if there had not been damage in the south?
KC: No, we've got a pretty good split between, like I said, the 600 crews, 300 up in the northern part, 300 in the southern part. That is a lot of crews on our system. We even have some crews that are helping from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. So we've got plenty of crews on the system, and now the matter is — with a day or two, especially in the northern part — of the roads being cleared, our crews can get out there at a much more efficient pace.
DT: Before I let you go, Katie, I'd like to ask you for your advice for how people can stay safe in the areas where there are currently outages.
KC: Yeah, we're seeing just tons of downed power lines up in the northern part and the southern part. So I cannot stress it enough: If you see a downed power line, please stay 25 feet away from that. Call 1-800-477-5050 or you can call 9-1-1.
Additionally, I know many customers use generators. Please make sure if you have a generator, that's getting used in an open-air space: no garages. basements or patios. And then if you see a crew on the roadway, please go slow and give them a wide berth as they're out there trying their best to get everybody's power restored.
Editor's note: Some quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity. You can hear the full interview near the top of this page.
Consumers Energy and DTE Energy are among Michigan Public's corporate sponsors.
