A storm lasting a few minutes that decimated 400 year old mighty oaks can only be described as brutal. That’s what happened at Clark Lake this morning.  Terrific wind knocked down branches or entire trees.  In turn, their falling members took down power lines and caused property damage.  On the lake, the blast ripped canopies, turtled watercraft, upended docks, and scattered other belongings. 

Here is a look at some of the storm damage on the lake. 

The massive power outage across the state was caused largely by trees and branches taking down poles and power lines.  Here are some photos of tree damage around Clark Lake this morning.

  • Township Park. This tree fell prior to this storm.

Wires were down at least three locations around Clark Lake. One was an high tension line laying on the front lawn of a Hyde Road resident.  Another major wire down was on Grand Boulevard (pictured in the slide show).  A third problem area was across the lake on the south side, east end. 

Consumers Energy reports that the storm, in three waves, knocked out service to 369,000 customers throughout the state.  As of 4:50 pm today, they say service had been restored to 130,000 customers.  According to Guy Packard, CE’s vice president for electric operations, “These three days of storm activity ranks among the top 10 storms in our company’s 135-year history.” 

Consumers also stated this afternoon that a majority of 230,000 customers without power are expected to be restored by late Saturday night.  A check of an Eagle Point address (as of 9:30 pm Thursday) indicated restoration at 9:45 pm Sunday.  Clark Lakers hope that information is out of date. 

Thanks to those who helped develop this story including Flip Reynolds, Charlie Timberlake, Bill and Ann Searles, Mike and Nancy Ligibel and C.J. Cox.  If you’re wondering why this story was delayed until now, consider how computers and internet are powered.  It took a momentary trip south of the state line to complete this story.  

Consumers Energy says “customers can report an outage and check the latest status of outages by visiting www.ConsumersEnergy.com/OutageCenter. Customers can also sign up to get outage alerts and restoration times sent to a phone, email or text message, Text ‘REG’ to 232273 or visit www.ConsumersEnergy.com/alerts.”

 

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