Snow, winds cut power across Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD/AP) - A late winter storm that carried heavy, wet snow and high winds across Michigan's Lower Peninsula knocked out power to nearly 200,000 residents and businesses, stymied travel and created gale warnings along Great Lakes shorelines.

As of 4 a.m. Wednesday 2,110 Consumers Energy electric customers are still without service.

Consumers Energy outages by county:

Benzie -- 760
Grand Traverse -- 60
Leelanau -- 950
Manistee -- 260
Mason -- 80

All customers who remain without electric service are encouraged to call the utility at 1-800-477-5050.   

As of 9:30 a.m. Monday 18,072 Great Lakes Energy customers remain without power throughout 18 counties in northern Lower Michigan. Power has been restored to 38,332 members since the winter storm began late Friday night. Electric service may not be restored until Wednesday in some areas.

Great Lakes Energy outages by county:

Antrim: 4,225
Charlevoix: 2,016
Cheboygan: 22
Crawford: 2,599
Emmet: 1,083
Grand Traverse: 406
Kalkaska: 2,911
Lake: 2,450
Manistee: 199
Mason: 227
Missaukee: 48
Montmorency: 80
Newaygo: 5
Oceana: 83
Osceola: 28
Oscoda: 417
Otsego: 1,222
Wexford: 51

Some communities received more than 20 inches of snow, spurring authorities Friday evening to declare roads impassable in some places, such as Benzie County.

"We have blowing and drifting (snow) and it's super icy underneath from all this screwy weather we've been having," Sgt. Tony Harrington of the Michigan State Police post in Gaylord told the Petoskey News-Review Saturday.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reported it called its newspaper carriers off the roads Saturday morning and said subscribers who did not receive a newspaper would get one Sunday. Several area ski resorts reported power outages, dog sled races in Kalkaska were canceled and Northwestern Michigan College was closed Saturday.

The storm was part of the same system that brought a string of deadly tornadoes through numerous states in the Midwest and South.