Cloverland Electric Cooperative reports approximately 2,600 outages remain across its five-county service territory. Outage numbers on Wednesday peaked briefly to 10,000 when the transmission line serving the Eastern Upper Peninsula experienced a momentary fault.
Cloverland Electric members still without power at 6 p.m. tonight may want to consider alternate arrangements as necessary to ensure their safety during this extended outage. Those who depend on electricity for medical equipment should continue an emergency back-up plan for alternate sources of power or alternate lodging. Members with unmet, non-emergency needs should call 2-1-1.
“We had outage reports coming in from all corners of our service territory and our line crews have worked tirelessly,” said Cloverland’s President and CEO Mike Heise. “Our co-op members have been very understanding and we want to thank them for their patience, particularly during the holiday.”
All available crews from the co-op’s five divisions worked through the holiday. Line crews began responding to outages early Wednesday morning and worked late into the evening before mandatory safety rest. Approximately 5,500 members were without power overnight as a result of storm damage that included downed lines, trees on lines and broken poles. Heavy snow continued to cause additional outages making it challenging for crews. Restoration efforts continued early Thanksgiving morning with the help of mutual aid crews from Bay City Electric Light & Power and HomeWorks Tri-County Electric Cooperative. Crews will continue working late into Thanksgiving evening at which time they will take mandatory safety rest. Restoration efforts will resume early Friday morning. Crews restored over 16,000 outages since the start of the storm.
Cloverland Electric reminds the public to stay safe and stay clear of downed power lines and report them by calling (800) 562-4953 or local law enforcement agencies. Those with access to Cloverland Electric's website and Cloverland Electric’s Facebook page can stay current on restoration efforts and the latest updates available. However, the co-op reminds its members not to use Facebook or other social media platforms to report outages, post service addresses, or other account information.
Cloverland Electric Cooperative is a not-for-profit, member-owned utility located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It serves over 42,000 homes and businesses in Chippewa, Delta, Mackinac, Luce, and Schoolcraft counties.