West Michigan's Morning News
Power Restoration Update with Consumer's Energy
It has been productive overnight for our friends with consumers energy. This is West Michigan's morning news. Steve Kelly and Brett Bakedesh, midi back with us soon on the Liveline Media Relations Director with Consumers Energy, Katie Carey. Thank you so much for doing this today. Yeah, thanks for having me. This time yesterday, all heck was breaking loose over a wide swath of the state of Michigan. Talked to us a little bit about where we stand now. Yeah, what 24 hours can really do for our crews. Within 24 hours, we've crested over 110,000 customers that have been restored. So we still have 63,000 out there that are without power. Most of them in the Muskegon, Kent County, and Northeast Michigan area, but we've got over 450 crews on the system and more starting as we speak from out of state, ready to get the job done for our customers. And Katie, how would you grade this storm in the fact that when you get these straight lines, strong winds and you see as many, you know, lines down, whether it's trees falling down or whatever, obviously that makes the process that much more difficult, right? You're exactly right. The debris uprooted trees in some situations have really caused a little bit of a delay in the sense of before we can even get to the outage, we've got to clear the path so our crews can get there. So we appreciate the coordination with local road commissions and our own forestry crews that are helping to kind of clear it up. We had one circuit in Muskegon that had over 30 poles that had been snapped, that we have to start replacing, and then we can get the power back on. No kidding. I mean, that's kind of hard to wrap your head on, just one spot, 30 poles. Yes, it is quite, it is quite amazing when you think about, you know, on average, it takes an hour, many hours, I would say, to restore a pole, then you think of 30 in one, you know, on one circuit, it really is, it really was damaging, and the storm packed a punch, but our crews, they know this work, they've been, you know, training for it, and they really do get out there, 16 hour shifts to get that power restored. I drove by one yesterday, and listen, man, you've got to give these people some room. They're especially yesterday morning just after this thing. There's some trees in the road, and they're obviously, they're wearing the right protective equipment, you can see them, but folks are just whizzing by, talk to us a little bit about what smart things we can do to help you do your job. That, you nailed it right there. Our crews are out there working, and many times they're right on the roadside, they try to get over as far as they can, but what we really need is the public and drivers that are out, we get it, you've got morning commute or evening commute. If you see some of our crews or any of the contractor crews out there, please slow down and go around, or even come to a stop, make sure you see that no oncoming traffic is coming so that you can safely go around. We want our crews to get home to their families and their loved ones safe at the end of this restoration event, much like we want the public to be safe too. It's a lot of fun to watch because they're so fast and good at what they do. You never like to see a storm, but consumersenergy.com, go to their outage map, it constantly gets updated 63,000 plus, which we were well over 100,000 just yesterday, 96.7% with power right now. And Katie, the other thing I wanted to mention is we got a little bit of a break right because the storm went through so quickly, and then we had some clearing so the crews could get out there because sometimes, you know, they've got to wait for that weather for their safety and it can be 24 hours, 48 hours, right? You're exactly right. The weather for restoration, we call it good restoration weather, you know, yesterday very low breeze, you know, a little bit of humidity, but they could get out there. There were no other hazards other than what they had to deal with in order to restore. And we are looking at that same kind of weather today. So if you think about it, we're putting over 450 crews on our system to get the lights back on. And so when you have those numbers in your favor, it will come together in a really good fashion today. That is Media Relations Director at Consumers Energy. Katie Kerry, thank you so much for your time this morning. Thank you so much for having me on.