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Repair crews battle to get upper hand on power outages

Posted at 10:41 AM, Feb 07, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-07 21:05:26-05

As utility crews scramble to repair and replace downed power lines caused by freezing rain and ice, new outages keep popping up. Fallen trees and tree limbs knocked brought down many lines. 

More than 145,000 Consumers Energy customers were still in the dark in Michigan, as of 8:46 p.m. Thursday, nearly 48 hours after the freezing rain began to fall on Tuesday night.  Consumers reported 1,844 active outages. The City of Grand Rapids reported more than 42,000 impacted utility customers Thursday night. Warming shelters were open in many communities.

On Thursday night, the heaviest concentration of outages was epicentered within 20 miles of Grand Rapids. Hit hardest were Kent, Ionia, Montcalm and Muskegon counties.

Consumers Energy did not post estimated restoration times for many areas, instead saying it was "Awaiting investigation results." Downed trees and tree limbs were the cause of many of the downed power lines and outages.

Two days of ice storms has cut the power for more than 140,000 Consumers Power customers, the vast majority of them in West Michigan counties. Kent County alone has more than 76,000 customers without electricity as of 5:30 p.m.

For up-to-date figures on electric-service interruptions and locations, view the Consumers Energy outage map .