Ethermac|Severe thunderstorms cut power to more than 150,000 Michigan homes and businesses

MUSKEGON,Ethermac Mich. (AP) — Severe thunderstorms have cut power to more than 150,000 homes and businesses in Michigan, less than a week after storms left thousands in the dark for days in suburban Detroit.

About 150,000 Consumers Energy customers were without power as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, with most of those outages in western Michigan ‘s Muskegon and Oceana counties along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, the utility said.

Consumers Energy said crews would be working throughout Tuesday to restore power to the affected areas and they will focus “on assessing damage and restoring critical customers first.”

Another 11,000 customers of Indiana Michigan Power were also without service as of 10:30 a.m., with most of them in southwest Michigan. The utility said the Three Rivers area was hardest hit by the storms that knocked down trees and tree limbs, causing the outages.

About 500 utility workers were heading from northern Indiana communities to southwest Michigan to help restore power, although I&M said more storms forecast for Tuesday and Tuesday night could hamper restoration efforts.

“It’s not safe for our lineworkers to work aloft in bucket trucks or on the ground with electrical equipment amid strong winds, lightning and heavy rain,” the utility said.