KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — It’s not as bad as it could have been, but it’s not good and it’s not over either.
High winds have knocked out power to about 36-thousand Consumers Energy customers and another 12,000 Indiana and Michigan Electric customers in South West Michigan.
6,000 are without power in Kalamazoo County, 1,300 in Van Buren County and 3,700 in Allegan County and the number is around 900 in Calhoun County
Benton Harbor and Battle Creek report wind gusts as high as 60 mph. Kalamazoo topped out at 47 mph. Holland at 53 and South Haven at 43. The winds will begin to settle down after midnight but it will continue to be gusty out there in the morning.
Crews are working overnight to restore power but the continuing high winds are a challenge for work crews, especially in bucket trucks.
Some won’t see power restored until Tuesday.
There is some tree damage and black ice and high winds are being blamed for a number of crashes and jack-knifed semi’s along U.S. 131, but no major injuries have been reported so far.
In northern central Michigan, the high winds combined with heavy snow have resulted in in blizzard like condition.
ORIGINAL STORY
GRAND RAPIDS (WKZO AM/FM) — The National Weather Service has issued a High Wind Warning for most of southern Michigan with wind gusts up to 65 mph. It’s that exploding cyclogenesis the forecasters have been talking about for days.
Power outages have occurred and more are anticipated as sharply colder air will be entering the state. Conditions will continue to deteriorate through the day, with temperatures dropping from the 40s’s down into the teens by tonight.
Officials are telling everyone to batten down the hatches. Put anything that might blow away and cause damage to other homes or people inside and watch for falling limbs and branches.
The high wind warning is in effect through 7am Monday morning in southern Michigan due as two dramatically different weather fronts crashing into each other over Michigan,
The resulting high winds could cause blowing snow, downed trees limbs and powerlines that could block roads.
Indiana and Michigan Power, which services areas in Berrien, Cass and St. Joseph County says efforts to restore power could be slowed by sustained high winds. They say the ability of bucket trucks and cherry pickers to reach wires and branches can be impeded by winds and wind gusts, and branches and trees in the road can slow response.
The same powerful storm systems that are colliding over Michigan, whipping up the fierce winds have already tossed off a killer tornado in Mississippi and dumped record amounts of snow in Nebraska and Iowa.
They say the storm system will have impacted the lives of at least 150-million Americans by the time it has covered parts of the east with freezing rain over the next 36 to 48 hours.
