Mid-Michigan communities are dealing with the damage after last night’s severe weather.
Strong thunderstorms brought winds of 60 miles per hour to the region, blowing down trees and damaging houses. The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings around midnight as storms moved northeast.
The storms knocked out power to thousands in the area. By 2:00 p.m. on Friday, more than 12,000 Lansing Board of Water and Light customers were still without power.
The utility says most people will have their power restored in the next few days but there could be some lingering outages up until Wednesday.
Consumers Energy says about 177,000 customers statewide don’t have electricity, as of 2:00 p.m.
For Lansing resident Tyler Eckels, the power outage was complicated by downed tree limbs that blocked his car. After the storm passed, he called the fire department at 3 a.m. to help him get into his car so he could charge his phone.
“My wife's phone was zero. Mine was at 10% and for us to be able to get a hold of friends and family, we needed to charge,” he said.
Down Mahlon Street on Friday morning, Thomas Rivera was out with his chainsaw this morning helping neighbors clear debris.
He says a tree crushed his truck, but he’s happy no one was hurt.
“Now, we're just so lucky that none of these trees actually hit a house,” he said. “I can't believe it. They aimed everywhere else but didn't hit a house.”
Andy Kilpatrick is Lansing’s Public Service Director. He says residents are responsible for most trees that fall on their property.
“We do public right of way, so private trees that go into the right of way, we take care of. Unfortunately, we do have some right away trees that have gone into private property, including on houses, we will be dealing with that,” he said “We are prioritizing trying to get things back open first.”
The city of Lansing is directing residents to its 311 line or the Lansing Connect mobile app to report downed trees.
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor says city crews are working overtime to get roads cleared of trees and other debris while they work to restore power.
“We are certainly going to be getting it all done and then asking for some FEMA assistance to see if we can get some reimbursement back from the feds.”
Delta Township Supervisor Fonda Brewer is encouraging community members to help where they can.
“I ask each of you, if you see a neighbor in need, this is the time,” she said.
"This is when we come together as a community and we help each other where it's safe to do so.”
Utility officials are urging caution around downed power lines during cleanup efforts. They also say to keep generators about 25 feet away from doors, windows or vent intakes.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
