Consumers Energy : Helping Customers in Hardest-Hit Communities; Expects to Restore Power by End of Monday

Jackson, Mich. Sunday, August 27, 2023

Consumers Energy reached out to customers in the most-affected areas of its service territory this weekend while continuing an all-hands-on-deck push to restore power in the wake of a devastating Aug. 24 storm.

As of 8 p.m. Sunday, a record number of crews from six states had restored nearly 80 percent of the roughly 200,000 homes and businesses hit by the fierce storm that swept across the state, causing damage from Grand Rapids through Southeast Michigan. Our lineworkers and support teams are working around-the-clock and expect to restore most outages by the end of Monday.

While the work continued as quickly and safely as possible, Consumers Energy held customer appreciation events in communities with extensive storm damage, including: Grand Rapids, Comstock Park, Manchester, Grand Ledge and Grass Lake. From free children's museum tickets to free lunches, the company cares for those without power in the communities it serves. See Consumers Energy's Facebook page for details about potential future events.

"We appreciate our customers' patience under these challenging circumstances and want to express our gratitude," said Norm Kapala, one of Consumers Energy's Officers in Charge for the storm. "Restoring power is our No. 1 job and clearly that's what customers want most. But we hope these gestures of goodwill provide a small measure of relief as our hard-working crews continue to make repairs."

Electric lineworkers are working 16-hour shifts to help communities recover from damage caused by three confirmed tornadoes and high winds reaching 90 miles per hour.

Crews are making every effort to restore schools' power today. The company will contact schools unable to be restored today because of particularly severe storm impacts.

Due to severe damage, Consumers Energy will restore power in communities hit hardest by the end of Monday. Those communities are:

• Kent County, including Plainfield, Walker, Rockford, Lowell and surrounding areas.
• Ionia County, including Saranac, Clarksville and surrounding areas.
• Ingham County, including Stockbridge and the surrounding area.
• Eaton County, including Grand Ledge, Dimondale, Potterville and surrounding areas.
• Jackson County, including Jackson, Napoleon, Brooklyn and surrounding areas.
• Livingston County, including Cohoctah Township, Deerfield Township and surrounding areas.

Customers can report an outage and check the status of outage by visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter. They 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.

Kapala urged people to stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines, keep children and pets away, and report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050. Consumers Energy also asks the public to keep a safe distance from crews.

Consumers Energy urges 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.
• 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 that holds the electric service wires to a 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.

Consumers Energy is Michigan's largest energy provider, providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.7 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

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Media Contact: Katie Carey, 517-740-1739 orKatelyn.Carey@cmsenergy.com

The next news release is scheduled for 6 a.m., Aug. 28.