Power Outage Over the Weekend…Did you Lose it?

I found a very helpful and cool web tool from Consumers Energy Sunday.  Why was I looking at Consumers Energy's web site?  Because we lost our power with the weekend storm.  I was cold and worried about losing all the food in the freezer and refrigerator, and generally grumpy.

What a sinking feeling on a cold, windy and dark night.  You're sitting in your den, watching TV with your wife, when suddenly, things go black.  The power is out.  Oh, noooooo!

Yep, no electricity.....at my house.  Yep, again, we lost power, as did several thousand people because of the high winds.

Never mind that I could see lights on just down the street.  Never mind that I could also see lights burning away just blocks away.  Not at my house, and I'm not happy!!

Well, we quickly grabbed for flashlights, and candles and "lit up" so to speak and made the best of it.

We tucked our selves in for the "long-winter's night," woke up the next morning with, I swear, ice forming on the bed.  Still no power and it was down to about 40ish in the house.  So, we went out for breakfast, wandered around and killed time because we sure didn't want to go home.

Then I decided to use my iPad and check Consumers Energy's site, and I found their Outage Map.  How cool.  It showed just where the power was out.....our area was the hardest and biggest hit.....and, color coded.  Our area was a light brown.  I could track the outages.  Suddenly, my area's color changed from a light brown, meaning up to 1,000 people without power, to white.  The color was gone with only the white map left.  Did that mean the power was back on?  It sure did.  I called a neighbor and she confirmed the lights were on, and it was only 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  Now, I'm feeling great!

So, I wanted to share the site with you.  It's easy to work and it's in real-time.  It's  http://www.consumersenergy.com/outagemap

Thanks Consumers Energy.  All is well with the world again.