Severe Storms Devastate Mid-Michigan Overnight

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Late Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday, a series of severe storms swept through Mid-Michigan, leaving a trail of significant destruction. The storms knocked down numerous trees and power lines, resulting in widespread road closures and leaving many residents without electricity.

By early Friday morning, more than 200,000 customers of Consumers Energy found themselves without power, in addition to over 20,000 customers from the Lansing Board of Water and Light affected similarly. However, DTE Energy reported far fewer outages on the state’s east side.

The fallen power lines and trees have closed numerous roads around the region Friday morning, including:

• East and westbound traffic on I-496 in Lansing is halted from Pine St to MLK Blvd due to downed power lines.
• Westbound M-43, also known as Grand River Ave, is closed at Fairview Ave.
• Canal Rd is shut down in both directions between Rickie St and Davis Hwy in Eaton County due to several downed power lines.
• Many other roads across Mid-Michigan remain closed, but you can always check our First Alert Traffic Map for the latest updates on major routes.

Eaton County has been identified as one of the areas hardest hit by the storms. To assess the extent of the damage, teams from the National Weather Service will be conducting surveys on Friday to determine if a tornado was responsible for any of the destruction.