Michigan utilities work to restore power as more than 71K remain in dark

Michigan's two largest power utilities continued working Sunday night to restore power to customers hit in Thursday's fierce storms.

Consumers Energy said it had restore power to more than 70% of the 200,000 homes and businesses hit by outages and was prioritizing schools ahead of the new school year. Some 38,185 customers remained without power late Sunday, according to its website.

Some restorations in general would take until Monday, it said.

DTE said it expected to restore the majority of remaining storm outages by Sunday night. It had restored nearly 90% of its customers affected by severe weather, according to its website. As of 8:45 p.m., 33,050 customers were without power. DTE reported 117,000 customers in the dark on Saturday.

"Today is a critical day in our restoration process as we work to safely restore power to the state’s schools ahead of the new school week,” said Greg Salisbury, one of Consumers Energy’s officers in charge of restoration, in a statement Sunday. “Because of severe damage, we regret that some of our hardest-hit communities will see power restored Monday, but we’re working to ensure most customers will finish the weekend with power. I thank our customers and communities for their patience as we continue working around the clock.”

Consumers said it will contact schools whose power it would be unable to restore Sunday.

Crews have been called in from six states and electric lineworkers are working 16-hour shifts, the company said.

A storm Thursday night spawned seven tornadoes in five counties across Michigan's Lower Peninsula, causing two deaths and destroying property. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Wayne and Monroe counties.

Consumers Energy said its communities hardest hit by the storms are:

• Kent County, including Plainfield, Walker, Rockford, Lowell and surrounding areas
• Ionia County, including Saranac, Clarksville and surrounding areas
• Ingham County, including Stockbridge and the surrounding area
• Eaton County, including Grand Ledge, Dimondale, Potterville and surrounding areas
• Jackson County, including Jackson, Napoleon, Brooklyn and surrounding areas
• Livingston County, including Cohoctah Township, Deerfield Township and surrounding areas

cwilliams@detroitnews.com