Thousands of Michigan residents were without power Monday afternoon as high winds swept through West Michigan, with the biggest outage clusters reported in Kalamazoo, Ottawa and Allegan counties. As of 4:50 p.m., nearly 19,000 people were affected, and consumers energy’s outage map was being used to track restoration.
A Wind Advisory remained in effect through 8 p.m. for all of West Michigan, and gusts of 40 to 55 mph were possible immediately behind showers and storms. That was the setup for the outages, which came as the wind moved through the region and left utility crews and customers watching the map for when service would return.
The timing matters because the hardest-hit areas were still dealing with the aftereffects late in the day, while the advisory was not set to expire until evening. Kalamazoo County, Ottawa County and Allegan County accounted for most of the reported outages, making them the main focus for anyone checking whether power had come back on.
The numbers point to a broad disruption, not a brief flicker in one neighborhood. With nearly 19,000 residents affected by midafternoon and more wind possible before 8 p.m., the immediate question was how quickly consumers energy could move those outage totals down as the storm line passed.
