GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Severe weather hit much of the state Wednesday evening, with several tornado watches and flood warnings being issued throughout West Michigan.
A tornado warning was issued for parts of Branch and Hillsdale counties just around 11:45 p.m.
Parts of Van Buren County also dealt with a tornado warning for part of the evening, which expired around 10:15 p.m., while parts of St. Joseph County were under a tornado warning around 11 p.m.
READ MORE: Severe weather, tornado warnings in West Michigan Wednesday evening
“We’ve been preparing for this storm, making sure that our crews are ready and our trucks are stocked in case it does result in any outages. We’re really watching that southwest Michigan area. We’re watching for the potential for high wind gusts that can cause power outages, that can cause damage,” Consumers Energy spokesperson Joshua Paciorek said.
Just more than 6,400 customers are without power as of 11:45 p.m. Wednesday.
“One of the hazards in a storm like this that we really want people to be aware of is the potential for downed power lines. When the storm comes through, tornado comes through and there are downed power lines, those can be very dangerous and even deadly,” Paciorek added.
You can stay updated with the Consumers Energy Outage Map.
