More than 100,000 people lost power Friday night as a winter storm whipped into Michigan.
Officials with Consumers Energy warned that power could take longer than usual to be restored, as high winds in the forecast might prevent crews from working on the lines.
“That's due to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) rules that we have where our line workers cannot go up in a bucket when winds are over 35 miles an hour. They're trained, they know what they can do safely, so we want to make sure that that's known as we go forward,” said Consumers Vice President of Electrical Operations Chris Laird.
The National Weather Service forecasted wind gusts up to 40 miles an hour during the storm.
Consumers reported more than 48,000 customers without power Friday night. DTE Energy reported more than 98,000 outages.
“More than a thousand DTE employees are ready to respond to outages caused by this extreme weather system,” the company said in a message on its website.
Consumers Energy said it had hundreds of crews staged across its service area. The company said it was focused on the I-96 corridor.
"It's going to be blizzard conditions. I want to make sure people slow down and give space to our line crews, or forestry crews or field resources so that they have the ability to work safely as we go forward,” Laird said.
Both companies urged people to be cautious around their crews and said to call 911 to report downed lines.
