Ice storm knocks out power for 600,000 plus Michigan customers
(The Center Square) – As many as 676,280 customers in Michigan were without power as of 7:45 a.m. Thursday due to an ice storm that swept through the southern part of the state.
Consumers Energy and DTE warned customers on Twitter that downed wires could delay restoration efforts.
“Crews are actively working in the field. They are assessing damage and making the public safe due to down wires. Restore efforts will be made when it is safe to do so,” DTE tweeted at 4:57 a.m. Thursday.
“This sounds like ‘plan on no power till Friday at the earliest,” one customer replied.
“As the sun starts to rise, our crews are continuing the work to restore power across the lower peninsula, with more deployed every hour as it’s safe to do so,” Consumers Energy tweeted at 6 a.m. Thursday “Restoration times may change as we continue to assess damage and monitor conditions after the storm.”
Temperatures in lower Michigan impacted by the outages were projected to be above freezing by 10 a.m. Thursday and reach as high as 47 degrees by 2 p.m.
Wayne County, where Detroit is located, had the most customers without power at 206,434, according to poweroutage.us. That was 22% of the customers.
Hillsdale County had 83% of its customers without power, approximately 17,682 customers are without juice.
