MICHIGAN — The majority of people still without electricity following last week’s high winds should expect to have power restored by midnight, according to the latest update from Consumers Energy.
As of Saturday afternoon, roughly 34,500 Consumers Energy customers remained without power, according to spokesperson Roger Morgenstern.
>> MORE: Consumers Energy power outage map
At one point, more than 354,000 Consumers Energy customers lost power following the persistent and strong winds on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Friday, Gov. Rick Snyder said at one point close to a third of the state’s land area had no access to electricity after high winds knocked out power this week to more than a million utility customers.
In harder hit areas, like portions of Allegan, Barry, Branch, Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties, work to restore power will continue through Sunday, Morgenstern said.
“We’ve made steady progress today with the continued favorable weather,” Mary Palkovich, vice president of energy delivery, said in a Saturday news release.
“We know the cold weather is challenging for our customers still without power as well as our crews performing restoration work. We appreciate the patience of all customers affected by this devastating storm. Our work is not done until each customer has their power safely restored.”
More than 9,000 electric wires were taken down and more than 1,300 poles were broken due to high winds, according to Consumers Energy.
An additional 166 crews were brought in from Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Indiana to assist local crews working to restore power.
