WEST MICHIGAN — Consumers Energy said approximately 129,000 customers remained without electrical service Christmas morning.
The weekend storm caused more than 318,000 outages — more than 17 percent of Consumers Energy’s 1.8 million electrical customers. It marked the largest Christmas-week storm in the company’s 126-year history and Consumers’ largest ice storm in more than 10 years.
“We will continue staffing around the clock until restoration is complete,” said Mark Palkovich, vice president of energy deliver with Consumers Energy. “We know this has been difficult on our customers. We thank them for their patience and understanding, and we thank the men and women who are spending Christmas away from their families to get the lights back on across Lower Michigan.”
More than 2,900 field and office employees from Consumers, Michigan-based contractors and workers from 11 states and Washington, D.C., are helping with the storm restorations.
Following are the counties and numbers of customers still without electrical service:
Genesee 44,968
Shiawassee 17,351
Barry 14,458
Ingham 13,870
Eaton 11,745
Clinton 8,579
Calhoun 3,988
Ionia 3,153
Livingston 2,800
Oakland 2,759
Kent 1,958
Allegan 1,257
Kalamazoo 1,130
Gratiot 398
Montcalm 256
All power is expected to be restored in northern Kent County today. The rest of the counties are expected to be restored no later than Saturday.
