UPDATE Friday, 4:45 p.m. | The Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) and its crews, alongside Mutual Aid crews, are continuing to respond to widespread outages in Lansing.
Over 24,000 people are still without power in the Greater Lansing area, and Consumers Energy has over 162,000 are without power across west and mid-Michigan.
BWL will host a media briefing at 10 a.m. Saturday with Lansing Mayor Andy Schor to discuss their restoration efforts.
“We’re working hard, getting our crews throughout the region to continue planning and implementing restoration efforts through the weekend,” said BWL General Manager Dick Peffley in a news release. “The damage in our service territory is significant, as some streets are still impassable due to downed trees.”
BWL prioritizes outages at hospitals, urgent care facilities, water pumping facilities, police and fire departments, waster water treatment plants and pumping stations.
"All other restorations not immediately involving public safety will be scheduled to restore service to circuits with the largest number of customers within the shortest amount of time," according to the release.
Consumers Energy also sent out an update late Friday afternoon. Crews from Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Alabama, Kentucky and Pennsylvania have joined their crews with the hopes of restoring outages by the end of Sunday.
There were three confirmed tornadoes in Consumers Energy's coverage areas with a path of damage from Grand Rapids to Southeast Michigan.
FOX 47 News reporters have been out in their neighborhoods all day covering the storm damage and seeing how their communities are coming together to help one another.
You can read all of our coverage here:
- Mason neighborhood relying on generators after storm devastates the area
- Jackson continues to recover after a week packed with natural disasters
- People all over Charlotte are feeling the after effects of Thursday night's storm
- 'We're here for each other;' Helping hands in Williamston after Thursday night's tornado
UPDATE Friday, 12 p.m. | Consumers Energy sent out an update about their restoration efforts saying they expect to have most customers power restored by end of Sunday.
Over 660 crews from Kentucky, Alabama and Pennsylvania are all coming to Michigan to help join the 1,000 teams in the restoration efforts.
The damage spans from Grand Rapids through Southeast Michigan with over 200,000 homes and businesses without power.
“Our all-hands-on-deck effort will continue today and throughout the weekend to restore power as quickly as possible for all customers impacted by this severe storm,” said Greg Salisbury, one of Consumers Energy’s officers in charge for the storm. “The safety of our customers and crews will remain the top priority as we work to make repairs, and we appreciate our customers’ patience.”
Ingham County Emergency Management warned of numerous downed power lines across the county. Jolly Road was shut down Friday afternoon at Ponderosa Drive in Meridian Township due to downed power lines.
Consumers Energy will be hosting a news conference at 2:30 p.m. to address their restoration efforts.
UPDATE Friday, 11:30 a.m. | Power outages continue to plague mid-Michigan, and emergency management agencies are urging residents to be cautious of the debris.
The Lansing Public Service Department said they are aware of the many trees and limbs that have fallen in the area, and the department said that crews are working to clear the debris, prioritizing clearing the main roads, downed power line and major blockages first.
To report a down tree or power line in Lansing, call 311 or visit the Lansing Connect webpage.
A lot of residents in west and south Lansing are without power with the Lansing Board of Water and Light reporting over 400 active outages with over 27,000 people affected.
Consumers Energy is reporting 3,534 outages with over 180,000 people affected. Many of the major outages are south of Lansing and north of Jackson.
Ingham County Emergency Management has reported that two people have died due to the storms, one along Interstate 96 and one in Lansing. Multiple injuries have also been reported along I-96 due to the tornado that touched down.
Emergency management will be going out with the National Weather Service to survey the damage and is asking residents to avoid downed power lines, not to drive around barricaded roads and use care when cleaning up debris.
If you have any damage to your home or business, you can submit your information to the state GIS system.
ORIGINAL STORY | A storm system that moved through mid-Michigan Thursday night left a lot of residents without power.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Greater Lansing area around 9 p.m. due to "destructive" 80 mph winds. A tornado warning was also issued for northeastern Ingham County at 9:37 p.m.
The Lansing Board of Water and Light reported that over 29,000 residents were affected by 190 outages in the Lansing area as of 10:50 p.m.
Around the same time, Consumers Energy was reporting over 1,900 outages with over 192,000 people affected, with many of the outages in the mid-Michigan area.
Capital Area Ingham County Alerts sent out a message telling residents to avoid the area of Holt Road and Cedar Street and Holt/Delhi due to "numerous power lines down."
For up to date outage information, you can go to the Consumers Energy website and the Lansing BWL outage center webpage.
This is a developing story.
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