News Release

Consumers Energy Crews Working Overnight Bring Restoration Total to 85,000

Jackson, Mich. Friday, December 17, 2021

Consumers Energy crews working 16-hour shifts through the night with less extreme wind speeds and favorable weather restored a total of 85,000. Yesterday’s windstorm featured 65 to 75-mile-per-hour winds that caused damaged across the state and impacted over 190,000 total Consumers Energy customers.

“We thank our customers for their patience as our crews continue the around the clock restoration efforts,” said Guy Packard, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm event. “Mother Nature continued with high winds throughout much of the day on Thursday and we are hopeful for even more significant progress today for our 420 total crews working this effort.”

Severe winds hit west and northwest lower Michigan late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. Winds knocked down trees, limbs and over 2,400 power lines, snapping 170 poles. We are expecting more than 70 additional contractor crews to our system today.

To thank customers for their patience, Consumers Energy has scheduled two community events in northern Michigan today on the Leelanau Peninsula and in Falmouth, providing free baked goods and hot beverages. Additional details can be found at Facebook.com/ConsumersEnergyMichigan, and additional events are expected to be scheduled in the state.

Customers can report an outage and check the status of outage by visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter. Customers can also sign up to get outage alerts and restoration times sent to a phone, email or text message, Text ‘REG' to 232273 or visit www.ConsumersEnergy.com/alerts.

Packard urged people to pay close attention during their drive to work or school today for possible downed wires, and to stay at least 25 feet away from them, keep children or pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050. Consumers Energy asks the public to keep a safe distance from crews due to health precautions and to allow them to do their work.

Consumers Energy also asks the public to keep important safety tips in mind:

• Be alert to crews working along roads. Drivers should slow down or stop and wait for oncoming traffic to clear so they safely can go past workers on roadsides.
• Call 2-1-1 if you are looking for help connecting to resources that offer assistance in your community. 2-1-1 is a free statewide service.
• Never use a generator in an attached garage, basement, enclosed patio or near any air intakes. Doing so could cause a generator to produce hazardous levels of carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless and deadly gas. Read more guidance on safe generator use here.
• Consumers Energy will trim or remove trees interfering with electric restoration activities. Once safe to do so, clean-up of debris from tree trimming or removal during a storm emergency is the responsibility of individual property owners.
• In some cases, the mast which holds the electric service wires to a customer’s home or business may have been damaged or torn away. Crews will reconnect the wires to a home, but only a licensed electrician can repair or replace a mast or a cable.

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Media Contacts: Terry DeDoes, (517) 243-9908, or Katie Carey, 517-740-1739

The next news release is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, Dec.17.