News

Actions

First Snow Brings Power Outages And Slide-Offs

Posted at 10:17 AM, Oct 24, 2013
and last updated 2013-10-24 10:21:59-04
10-24-13 Fennvile snow by Kathy Doornbos

Snow in Fennville, Mich. (Courtesy Kathy Doornbos)

FENNVILLE, Mich. — Power went out in large areas of western Allegan County between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. as areas of snow developed early Thursday.

By 10 a.m., more than 5,000 Consumers Energy customers were without power from Allegan north to scattered areas of western Ottawa County , according to the company’s outage map. Most locations were expected to have power restored by 1 p.m.

The snow was particularly troublesome for power lines because of a combination of wet snow and trees that still have a lot of leaves on them. That, and the fact that West Michigan did not experience much of the kind of summer weather events that knock down a lot of the weak trees and dead branches that accumulate over time.

There was at least one unconfirmed report of a tree on a vehicle and another report that a tree fell on a house. No injuries were reported in either incident.

Meanwhile, the stretch of I-196 between Zeeland and Hudsonville proved treacherous for a few drivers that ended up in the median or in a ditch between 5:30 a.m.and 6:30 a.m.