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Storms Knock Out Power, Close Some Schools

Posted at 6:48 AM, Nov 18, 2013
and last updated 2013-11-18 07:03:26-05
Battle Creek Storm

Battle Creek intersection with no traffic signal on Sunday.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — More than 213,900 Consumers Energy customers were without power after Sunday’s storms.

Most people in areas affected by outages were expected to encounter delays at intersections where traffic lights where out. A number of school districts either cancelled all classes, as did Grandville Public Schools, or cancelled classes only at specific schools with no power.

“Harder hit areas may not have their electric service restored until Thursday,” said an early morning update from Consumers.

The hardest hit of West Michigan counties by percentage were Van Buren County with 70.8 percent of Consumers’ electricity customers without power, and St. Joseph County with 26.6 percent in the dark.

(Click here for continuously updated school closings list. Bookmark it for future use.)

The Consumers Energy outage map displayed these numbers as of 6:30 a.m.:

  • Kent County: 32,140 (11.9% of total customers)
  • Ottawa: 5,977 (5.3)
  • Kalamazoo: 17,042 (15)
  • Calhoun: 9,603 (15.4)
  • Allegan: 7,871 (15.9)
  • Barry: 6,990 (25.7)
  • Branch: 2,781 (17.5)
  • Ionia: 3,686 (16.4)
  • Montcalm: 2,229 (8.4)
  • Muskegon: 2,899 (3.6)
  • Newaygo: 2,592 (13.3)
  • St. Joseph: 2,471 (26.6)
  • Van Buren: 5,714 (70.8)

As of 6:30 a.m., Indiana & Michigan Power reported thousands of their customers in Michigan had no power:

  • Berrien County: 18, 731
  • Cass: 7,989
  • Van Buren: 7,252
  • St. Joseph: 2,297
  • Kalamazoo: 623
  • Allegan: 102