Mich. organizations aid Sandy recovery

DUNDEE, Mich. (AP) - As Michigan's cleans up from its relatively light brush with superstorm Sandy, more of the state's utility workers are heading east to help in harder-hit areas.

Jackson-based CMS Energy Co. says it's sending 30 employees from a staging area in Dundee to Cleveland on Thursday morning to help First Energy, which had about 200,000 customers blacked out from the storm. In all, at least 300 CMS workers are being mobilized outside the company's service area.

CMS's Consumers Energy unit serves about 1.8 million Michigan electricity customers.

Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. says the number of its blacked-out customers was down to 25,000 by 4 p.m. Wednesday. That's out of at least 120,000 customers that lost service in this week's storm.

DTE's Detroit Edison unit serves about 2.1 million electricity customers.

The Red Cross of West Michigan also announced Wednesday that it would send 21 more volunteers to the East Coast on Thursday. 40 West Michigan Red Cross volunteers and 6 emergency response vehicles are already there.

The Red Cross is providing food, water, information and emotional support, according to a Wednesday release. As of Tuesday, 9,000 East Coast residents were staying in 170 Red Cross shelters in 13 affected states.

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