Thousands of residents across Kentucky and Michigan were left without electricity late Thursday and into Friday as a powerful storm system unleashed tornadoes, large hail, and hurricane-force winds across both states, toppling trees, damaging infrastructure, and leaving communities in darkness.
Kentucky Faces Consecutive Storm Waves
In Kentucky, severe weather conditions started Thursday night and are expected to persist through Friday evening, prompting weather warnings across the state. The western region experienced the worst outages, with Marshall County reporting 9,886 customers without power and Union County listing 3,095 outages, according to real-time tracking from PowerOutage.us.
The central region was also hit hard, with Madison County seeing 2,513 outages and nearly 4,000 customers in Spencer County losing power around midnight. Meteorologists warn that another round of storms is likely to strike later Friday, raising concerns about further damage and outages.
Michigan Slammed by Hurricane-Strength Winds
Meanwhile, southwestern Michigan was rocked by powerful storms late Thursday night, with wind gusts reaching 75 mph in Battle Creek and 66 mph in Kalamazoo. Grand Rapids and Lansing also recorded wind speeds exceeding 60 mph, contributing to widespread damage and power loss.
More than 258,000 customers across Michigan were affected by the outages at the height of the storm. One Battle Creek resident described the chaos on X (formerly Twitter):
By Friday evening, DTE Energy reported approximately 2,300 customers were still without power in southeastern cities like Ann Arbor, Flat Rock, and Adair. Consumers Energy, which handles much of the state’s energy needs, noted that around 1,000 customers in Plainfield remained affected as of late Friday morning.
Weather Alerts and Recovery Efforts
Authorities in both states are urging residents to remain alert as cleanup and recovery efforts continue amid the ongoing threat of additional storms. Emergency services are coordinating with utility companies to restore power as quickly as possible, but officials warn that full restoration could take several days, especially in the hardest-hit areas.
Local governments have opened shelters and emergency services for those impacted by the outages and damage, and residents are being encouraged to check on vulnerable neighbors and avoid downed power lines.
Sources By Agencies
