BWL and Mutual Aid Crews Continue to Respond to Widespread Outages
Mutual aid crews from across Michigan and out-of-state arrive in Lansing to assist
The Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL) is continuing to work throughout its service territory to make restorations to customers throughout the Greater Lansing region following last night’s storm, and will continue to work throughout the night on repairs. Crews from across Michigan including Niles, Grand Haven, Traverse City, Coldwater, Sturgis, Marshall, Sebawing, Zeeland and out-of-state crews from Pennsylvania, Iowa and Kentucky are arriving in Lansing to join BWL crews to get power restored quickly and safely.
The BWL currently has over 26,000 customers still without power, and an estimated 28 broken poles and around 150 wires down still in its service territory.
“We’re working hard, getting our crews throughout the region to continue planning and implementing restoration efforts through the weekend,” said BWL General Manager Dick Peffley. “The damage in our service territory is significant, as some streets are still impassable due to downed trees.”
Restoration for outages will follow the BWL’s priority process in the following order: hospitals, urgent care facilities, water pumping facilities, police and fire departments, waste water treatment plants and pumping stations. All other restorations not immediately involving public safety will be scheduled to restore service to circuits with the largest number of customers within the shortest amount of time.
Customers who have experienced a single service outage due to mast damage are responsible to have repairs done before the BWL is able to restore power. Customers may use any of the BWL approved electrical contractors to have repairs made and payments financed interest free for 12 months. Click here for more information.
Please stay at least 25 feet from downed lines. Intersections with traffic signals out should be treated as 4-way stops.
Estimated restoration times will be posted to BWL’s Outage Map as information from the crews is received. Customers should report power outages and downed lines by calling 877-295-5001. Outages can also be reported by visiting the Outage Center at www.lbwl.com/outagecenter, using the BWL Outage Center mobile app or texting “out” or “outage” to 898295 or txtbwl.