“We had more than 50 coworkers raise their hands to help out. These folks hit the road early this morning.”
Consumers Energy spokesperson Trisha Bloembergen says out-of-state crews often travel to Michigan to help with power restoration after severe storms.
Now Michigan crews are returning the favor as Arkansas faces likely widespread outages.
“Not even a year ago, we had a significant ice event hit our communities. And so they know what it's like to not only respond to that issue, but also live through it.”
Forecasts call for heavy snow, freezing rain and strong winds across much of the southeast Friday and intensifying through the weekend, conditions Michigan crews know all too well.
“We would put our line workers up with any line workers across the nation. They're incredibly skilled and ready to respond.”
Consumers crews will stage in Little Rock and spread to locations where the storms impact.
Teams are prepared to stay for up to two weeks if necessary.
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