GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — High winds in western Michigan knocked down trees and power lines, causing major power outages in the area.
According to Consumers Energy, a public utility that provides natural gas and electricity to 6.7 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents, nearly 29,000 customers were without power early Sunday, WOOD-TV reported.
Most of the outages were reported in Kent, Allegan and Newaygo Counties, WXMI-TV reported, with 16,690 customers without power in Kent County.
Consumers Energy reports close to 29,000 customers without power as of 8 a.m. today from over 440 individual outages caused by high winds that knocked down trees, limbs and branches.https://t.co/jHbL4ODt0z
— WOOD TV8 (@WOODTV) March 6, 2022
According to the National Weather Service, winds in Grand Rapids, Holland and Muskegon reached up to 60 mph, WOOD reported. In southwestern Michigan, Kalamazoo reported gusts up to 48 mph, the television station reported.
“We were able to put crews on rest yesterday to start preparing for today’s restoration work, which began overnight and will continue through the day,” Brian Wheeler, a spokesperson for Consumers Energy, told WOOD.
The Consumers Energy Outage Center has information on restoration times. Midwest Energy is also reporting several outages due to the wind, WXMI reported. Midwest Energy has outage numbers and additional safety information on its website.
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