Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Crews are said to be making progress to restore power and repair damage after high winds that spawned tornadoes, thunderstorms, and hail swept through Michigan overnight.

More than 230,000 customers lost power across both the Consumers Energy and DTE Energy service areas.

The majority of outages are served by Consumers in the west Michigan area. The hardest hit were said to be Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Hamilton, and Muskegon.

Scattered power outages are showing across the WHMI listening area, with some in Livingston and Oakland Counties. The most significant numbers are reported to the west, including Ingham and Eaton Counties.

Consumers Energy said crews are working around the clock to safely restore power in the impacted communities as soon as possible. It mobilized 550 crews to assist with efforts.

Utilities are readying additional resources to deal with more severe weather and another round of storms in the forecast.

Consumers Energy said it aims to have the majority of customers restored by Saturday night, with the hardest hit and new areas by Sunday night.

The National Weather Service has confirmed two tornado touchdown areas but more are likely as surveys of storm damage continue. MLive.com reports two EF-0 tornadoes were confirmed – one by St. Mary’s Lake, north of Battle Creek, and another between Galesburg and Battle Creek.

The National Weather Service has confirmed two tornado touchdown areas but more are likely as surveys of storm damage continue. MLive.com reports two EF-0 tornadoes were confirmed – one by St. Mary’s Lake, north of Battle Creek, and another between Galesburg and Battle Creek.

Locally, some damage was reported including some downed trees and power lines. In the Howell area, severe weather sirens sounded off last night from roughly midnight to 12:45am.

Links to outage maps are provided.