- A utility company is staying ready as winter weather moves into our neighborhood
- Consumers Energy says it saw thousands of power outages that were fixed within 24-hours
- Video shows a utility spokesperson explaining the company's strategy while one woman tells us why she's thankful just to have power
Dana Lawrence and her family continue a unique tradition that began in the dark when their home lost power.
"Our neighborhood was completely pitch black for a week," Lawrence said. "It's scary. I don't know what I would've done without my generator."
With a warm meal out of the question, the Lawrence's settled for cold options: sushi and sub sandwiches.
"Even last week my son who's coming home from [University of Michigan] was like 'we're going to have sushi and subs for Christmas right?'" Lawrence said.
As the family looks back at that moment with laughter, Consumers Energy is working to make sure no families go dark during winter according to spokesperson Brian Wheeler.
"Whenever we do have severe weather... it's all hands on deck," Wheeler said.
Wheeler says the company prepared for this week's burst of snow by sending out 80 crews totaling around 200 workers to repair any power outages caused by the storm.
Wheeler says around 27,000 customers lost power in this week's storms which took workers around 18-hours to fix.
A state audit released last fall found that Consumers Energy customers had longer-than-average wait times for power to be restored.
WATCH: AUDIT PROMPTS CONSUMERS ENERGY TO REPLACE OLD POLES, CUT INTO TREE TRIM CYCLE
Wheeler says the company is working around the clock to improve.
"Down the road, we want to see no more than 100,000 people ever lose power from a single storm and those who lose power will get it back within a day," Wheeler said.
The company is also working to replace dozens of wooden power poles with sturdier poles made of iron. Some of the poles Consumers Energy has are more than 40 years old according to the audit.
"This year we started to put our first iron poles in place. Not a lot of numbers yet but next year 2025 will be a big year," Wheeler said.
Lawrence says the family hasn't experienced a power outage as severe as the one she described many Christmases ago. These days, the family shows more appreciation for something as overlooked as electricity.
"We take it so obviously for granted," Lawrence said.
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