KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Severe thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon and evening across the state left damage and over 100,000 power outages, many of them in Southwest Michigan.
Kalamazoo County was one of the hardest-hit areas where there were reports of large trees toppling over and in a few cases landing on homes. A home in the Comstock area and another in Oshtemo Township both had trees fall on them. Two people were trapped in a home east of downtown Kalamazoo and had to be rescued, but no injuries were reported.
Several traffic lights are out, especially in the Parchment and Cooper Township areas. Several schools are closed for Wednesday due to outages including Parchment Schools, Kalamazoo Central High School, and Galesburg-Augusta Schools.
A nearly 70 mph wind gust was reported at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport. The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids says their main weather radar was knocked offline due to a lightning strike either near or at the radar site. Surrounding radar sites in Detroit, Chicago, Indiana and other sites are being used to fill in weather data for the region while the Grand Rapids site is down.
The city of Battle Creek is reporting that the building that houses their busses and transit services has been knocked offline. Right now, dispatch can not schedule any new rides or make changes to scheduled rides. Customers are asked to scheduled rides through their mobile app until normal service can be restored.
In Muskegon, Orchard View Schools superintendent Jim Nielsen says the roof over the cafeteria and gym at Cardinal Elementary was damaged, and the school will be closed today. Hail two-and-a-half inches in diameter was also reported in Lake County.
To check the status of an outage in your area, or to report one, customers can go online to www.consumersenergy.com/outages/outage-center. In the meantime, Consumers provides the following safety tips for customers during situations like this –
- Protect your equipment from power surges. Unplug sensitive electronics like TVs, computers and printers. Turn power strips off.
- Downed wires can be deadly. If you see a downed wire, please stay at least 25 feet away from it, and anything it is touching. Once you’re safe, call 9-1-1. Then call Consumers at 800-477-5050.
- Stay in the know: get outage alerts sent to you automatically, and follow Consumers on Twitter and Facebook. The best way to get outage updates is by signing up for alerts. Consumers also communicates actively online, and updates can be viewed on Facebook or Twitter.
More safety tips can be found online by clicking here.
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