After thunderstorms packing 70 mph gusts raced across the state on Tuesday, August 30, more than 381,000 customers in Michigan are without electricity.
According to DTE Energy, 265 018 customers—mostly in the southeast of the state—are without power. Another 116,085 people were without power, according to Consumers Energy.
After storms knocked down trees, limbs, and power lines, utility crews worked all night to restore power.
For many areas, restoration times were unavailable. Utility workers should benefit from Tuesday’s calm weather, which was predicted by forecasters to include sunshine and temperatures in the mid-70s.
People were warned by the utilities to stay away from downed power lines. A 14-year-old girl in Monroe was electrocuted on Monday after touching a power line.
Customers reported that crews restored power to nearly 40,000 customers overnight. To restore power, more than 350 crews will be employed.
Greg Salisbury, the in-charge consumer officer, said in a statement that “our crews worked incredibly hard last night and made significant progress, restoring service to about 1/4 of all impacted customers.”
In a community event, Consumers is providing ice cream at Schultz’s Treat Shop in Kalamazoo, one of West Michigan’s hardest-hit areas. 10,578 Consumers customers were without power in Kalamazoo County as of 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Consumers said other counties with significant outages include Allegan (9,181), Barry (3,575), Branch (2,774), Calhoun (19,853), Eaton (3,047), Genesee (6,859), Hillsdale, (7,741), Ionia (1,671), Jackson (20,411), Kent (6,080), Lenawee (9,109), Livingston (1,819), Ottawa (1,146), Van Buren (1,732) and Washtenaw (2,219). Others include Montcalm (653), St. Joseph (347) and Saginaw (258).
Utility companies noted gusts of up to 70 mph. At 6:15 p.m., the Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport received a gust of 70 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Detroit.
