14K in Michigan still without power after tornadoes, thunderstorms
“More favorable weather conditions this weekend helped our crews speed up restoration progress significantly,” Norm Kapala, a Consumers Energy’s officer in charge of restoration, said in a statement.
“To those still awaiting restoration in especially hard-hit areas, we understand the difficulties you continue to face, and we won’t stop until the job is finished,” he said.
On Friday, Consumers and other utility providers reported 233,000 without power.
Related: Kalamazoo County declares state of emergency following tornado, heavy storms
Kalamazoo County has the most outages, with 3,798, including 2,880 in the City of Kalamazoo, Consumers outage map shows. Calhoun County has 2,545 outages, with most in Battle Creek.
Other counties with significant outages include Allegan (1,662); Eaton (1,761); Saginaw (938); Barry (834); Genesee (701); Kent (368); Ingham (261); Muskegon (257); Ottawa (224); and Van Buren (208).
Related: Dozens of trees topple in Holland area neighborhood, many fall on houses
The National Weather service in Grand Rapids and Detroit confirmed that nine tornadoes touched down across Michigan late Thursday into Friday during severe thunderstorms highlighted by 70-mph winds, hail and lightning.
The tornadoes were reported in the counties of Allegan (2), Calhoun, Eaton, Genesee, Kalamazoo, Livingston and Saginaw and a tornado that started in Kent County and moved into Ionia County.
They were rated EF-0 or EF-1, weakest on the Fujita strength scale, but caused significant damage in many areas.
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