BWL: Full power restoration efforts may take until May 21 after storm rips through region

Yahoo

17-05-2025

LANSING — Lansing Board of Water & Light General Manager Dick Peffley said some customers who lost power in overnight storms may not have power restored until Wednesday, May 21.
A late-night line of storms that moved across the Lansing region left more than 32,000 customers in the area without power. That number stood at about 30,000 as of 3 p.m. on May 16.
Severe thunderstorms that prompted tornado warnings in several communities late the evening of May 15 and in the early morning hours of May 16 produced high winds and heavy rains, and the resulting power outages caused several school closures.
Statewide, more than 223,000 customers had their power interrupted by the storms. As of 3 p.m. May 16, Consumer's Energy was reporting about 17,500 customers in Greater Lansing were without power. The utility was estimating restoration for Lansing-area customers by Saturday, May 17.
BWL at one point early Friday, May 16, had about 24,000 customers without power, with restoration times estimated for May 21. By 3 p.m., that number was down to about 12,200.
Peffley said earlier on May 16 that good weather conditions could allow crews to restore 10,000 customers by the end the day.
"That'd be a good day," he said.
But Peffley said there was extensive damage in Delta Township, Lansing and East Lansing and it would take time for crews to fully restore power. Additional storms expected later May 16 had the potential to interrupt restoration efforts, Peffley said, since crews cannot work when there is lightning or winds above 30 miles an hour for safety reasons.
BWL said it would prioritize hospitals, urgent care facilities, water pumping facilities, police and fire departments, wastewater treatment plants and pumping stations. After those services are restored, the utility will restore service to circuits with the largest number of customers before addressing smaller pockets of outages.
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said he anticipated seeking a disaster declaration to access funds for recovery, to help compensate for the overtime from city and utility workers.
Drivers were encouraged to use Kalamazoo Street or Lake Lansing Road to move east to west across the region, as East Grand River Avenue was closed in spots and Saginaw Street had numerous lights out. Michigan Avenue between University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Hospital and East Lansing is under construction.
Power outages and tree damage were the biggest impacts in the Lansing area, and about 10% to 20% of Ingham County was without power on Friday morning, said Rob Dale, deputy emergency manager for Ingham County. There were no reported injuries or major damage to structures, he said.
'The power outages are going to be the big deal,' he said.
Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Eaton County, particularly along a line from Vermontville to Potterville to Delta Township, he said. A National Weather Service team was expected to survey the damage there in the afternoon, Dale said.
Another round of storms was expected Friday evening, May 16, but they were not expected to be as severe as those from the night before.
Residents should make sure they stay away from power lines, Dale said. Even those that might have been dead could be re-energized at any time as repairs are being made, he said.
Fonda Brewer, Delta Township's supervisor, said her community had a lot of damage from huge fallen trees and downed power lines.
"If you heard that emergency warning last night, I hope you paid attention because this was the real deal," Brewer said.
Across the Lansing area, emergency agencies reported that trees and limbs were down and there were some overnight road closures because of debris and downed power lines.
MORE: Did tornado pass through Lansing area? NWS sends survey teams to investigate
Consumer's Energy had more than 6,250 customers in the Lansing area without power, and more than 189,000 customers were affected statewide. Much of the damage was in West Michigan.
DTE Energy, which has Lansing area customers in Webberville, Williamston and areas to the east along Interstate 96, was reporting more than 600 Lansing-area customers without power and more than 9,000 statewide. That number was down to about 375 as of 3 p.m. May 16. No restoration times were listed online.
Additionally, Homeworks Tri-County Electric, a rural coop that serves rurals areas around Lansing, said on its online outage map that 1,525 customers lost power, including more than 800 in the Lansing region. As of 3 p.m. May 16, the coop was reporting about 60 Lansing-area customers were still without electric service.
Several schools, including Lansing Community College East and East Lansing canceled classes May 16 because of power outages, and the Lansing School District canceled classes at several schools as well.
Andy Kilpatrick, Lansing's public works director, said the city had received gotten about 60 calls for fallen trees, limbs or other right of way obstructions and there were many more than haven't been formally reported.
On Mahlon Street - near Lansing's Groesbeck golf course, which also was damaged - city officials spoke to neighbors and news media on the blocked road.
Rico Harris splayed out his tarot cards on the hood of a car, as the officials finished a news conference.
"A good sign," Harris said, looking at the cards, which he said were giving hopeful signs of recovery and good tidings.
Harris said he was enjoying watching the lightning show the evening before until it became more serious.
"There was a bright green-turquoise flash and we figured it was electrical," Harris said, and he scooped up his nephews and everyone went to the basement for shelter.
Several trees fell on houses and cars on the street, including Hope Perez's son's car.
"It went dark, like you hear about how it gets dark in a storm but this was where we couldn't see anything," she said.
Perez said she could hear the whistles of the wind and the scattering debris outside but could only imagine the damage until it was safe to peek outside more than an hour later.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: BWL: Full power restoration efforts may take until May 21