Strong winds toppled trees and power lines across Michigan's Lower Peninsula on Saturday, leaving thousands of people without power.
Nearly 50,000 Consumers Energy customers were affected by outages, Consumers Energy spokesman Doug DeYoung said. According to Consumers Energy's outage map, as of Dec. 9 around 4 p.m., more than 37,000 people across Michigan reported ongoing power outages.
A National Weather Service wind advisory issued Saturday morning warned that wind gusts could reach 50 mph and power outages were possible in some parts of the state.
Related: Wind warning for most of Michigan, gusts up to 50 mph
Among the communities hit hardest by the wind was Midland County. Consumers Energy reports that as of Saturday afternoon, 6,979 customers – about 16.5% of Midland County customers – were without power due to numerous downed power lines throughout the region.
Since about noon Saturday, Midland Fire Department crews have responded to more than 12 reports of downed power lines in the city, said Battalion Chief Mark Laux.
Laux said additional incidents of trees and lines being knocked down by the wind were reported throughout Midland County.
“It's fairly widespread throughout Midland County and has caused significant exposure on the roads, people's travel and Saturday,” Laux said. “The weather is nice, but we have gusty winds that are affecting the trees, and then those (trees) took down power lines and closed roads.”
The Greater Midland Tennis Center is closed due to the power outage. Matches for the Northeast Michigan Tennis Association (NEMTA) district championships have been postponed until Sunday, according to Jessica Formsma, league and tournament coordinator for the Greater Midland Tennis Center.
Laux said it could take up to two or three days to restore power in some areas over the weekend due to the high number of outages and a lack of available personnel.
DeYoung said Consumers Energy had about 400 service personnel on site to help customers as of Saturday afternoon, with additional teams ready to join the effort in the evening.
“We want all customers restored by Sunday (Dec. 10),” DeYoung said.
According to the National Weather Service, a wind advisory is in effect for northern Lower Michigan until 6 p.m. Saturday. Southwest winds may reach between 10 and 20 mph, with gusts up to 45 mph.
Consumers can track the “estimated time of restoration” for specific areas affected by outages on the Consumers Energy map and sign up for text alerts on the Consumers Energy website, DeYoung said.
DTE reports that the strong winds are not a major concern as only about 910 are currently without power and many of those are not due to the wind, officials say.