'Cold as hell': Tens of thousands remain powerless in Michigan as issues linger

Redford Township — Ron George has spent the last five days in his van, at his sister-in-law’s house or rubbing his hands over a boiling pot of water on his stove.

George, 63, who hasn’t had power since Thursday, is tired of searching for heat. He’s tired not just because of the length of the outage but because it seems to be happening more and more.

“I’m as cold as hell,” he said from the driver’s seat of his van, which was parked in front of his Redford Township home on Monday afternoon. “I don’t know what, but something needs to be done. This happens too much."

George was one of tens of thousands of Michigan residents still without power Monday after an ice storm walloped the state last Wednesday. More than 124,800 Michigan residents were still in the dark Tuesday morning. The number was 136,000 Monday evening, and outage numbers were quickly rising as a new winter storm hit the state.

DTE Energy said Monday it had restored 600,000 of the 630,000 who were without power after last week's ice storm that downed thousands of power lines.

Its outage map listed 50,892 customers without power as of 7 a.m. Tuesday. The power company said the number was 57,781 at about 6 p.m. Monday. DTE officials said 30,000 of those customers were affected by outages that happened after last week's ice storm, mostly from tree branches falling on power lines.

Consumers Energy whittled down the number of its customers without service to 73,973 as of 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, it said. It reported just under 80,000 customers were without power at about 6 p.m. Monday, which was down from a high of 237,000 on Thursday, but nearly double those of Monday morning.

A representative said about two-thirds of the outages were new, stemming from a storm that brought a wintry mix of rain, ice and wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour to Michigan throughout the day.

“The work to restore power in our southern communities after this devastating ice storm is in the home stretch, and we are so grateful for our customers’ continued patience and understanding,” said Amanda Wagenschutz, one of Consumers Energy’s officers in charge, in a news release Monday.

“We are also keeping our crews and those from other states on our system as we monitor potential hazardous winter weather in northern communities today.”

There were about 55,000 new outages Monday, coming from storms hitting the state in the morning and afternoon, Consumers Energy spokesman Brian Wheeler said during a Monday briefing.

"Currently, the forecast still is suggesting we see more ice and wind for a few more hours," Wheeler said. "I hope the number doesn't go up, but I think it might."

Consumers workers still were finishing responding to outages from last week's storm in the southern counties, even as the number of new outages rose quickly, Wheeler said. About 25,000 of the outages Monday afternoon remain from last week's storm, he said.

More than 600 crews and more than 2,000 line workers were working on restoration, Wheeler said. Those who came from other states to help are staying and will move to help northern counties getting hit in Monday's storm after they finish their jobs in the southern counties, he said.

Ryan Stowe, the vice president of distribution operations at DTE, said crews will continue to work around the clock until power is restored. About half of the company's 63,000 outages are from last week, he said, and DTE customers are not getting hit as hard by Monday's storm as customers in areas that Consumers services.

Stowe said last week's ice storm was the largest in the company's history by the number of customers affected and the second largest in 120 years.

"An ice storm is one of the utility's largest nightmares," Stowe said Monday. "We’re gonna continue working until the last customer is restored."

He called the damage from the storm "extreme and catastrophic in nature," and said crews still are working to restore primary lines as well as fix damage after homes lost power.

Stowe acknowledged the need to strengthen the distribution grid and make the system more resilient in storms. He said DTE issued a distribution grid plan in 2021 and has invested more than $1 billion over the past year to improve systems. But it's going to take time to improve the 45,000 miles of power line and more than a million poles, he said.

"We are going to continue to have to harden the grid and make it more resilient," Stowe said. "It's going to take an investment and that’s an investment we want to make."

Stowe said crews will work simultaneously on last week's and Monday's outages. He said crews were being dispatched Monday to the oldest outages to ensure they were making progress in getting power restored.

DTE will automatically process $35 credits for customers who lost power for more than 96 hours, Stowe said, which customers previously had to apply for.

Consumers Energy spokeswoman Katie Carey said Consumers is "reviewing the customer impact and will work directly with customers on any outage credit they qualify for."

This announcement came after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel urged DTE and Consumers to proactively issue the credits. Nessel said they should have an electric infrastructure that can hold up during an ice storm, noting "winter weather is an expected occurrence in Michigan."

More:Key Michigan lawmaker calls for hearings on wave of winter power outages

DTE and Consumers crews aimed to have 95% of customers affected by last week’s storm back online by the end of Sunday.

DTE Chairman and CEO Jerry Norcia had promised to have about 90% of its customers with power by the end of Friday but did not reach that mark until Saturday afternoon.

By midnight Sunday, Consumers reported 97% of its total customer base with power and more than 33,000 customers remained without.

The utility said it held in-person events in Kalamazoo, Jackson and Hillsdale counties on Sunday, providing free meals and "a warm place to go" as power remained out for some customers.