LANSING, Mich. — The clean-up from last week's ice storms continues, and Consumers Energy and the State Emergency Operations Center are trying to alleviate some of the inconvenience felt during the power outages.
Consumers Energy is offering customers who had their service interrupted for more than 120 hours—or five days—during the widespread outages an electric outage credit.
Customers can apply on the Consumers Energy website, the credits will be applied to their next energy bill.
The State Emergency Operations Center said that residents of Grand Rapids and the surrounding areas affected by the outages may be eligible for replacement food assistance benefits.
Households that are already enrolled in Food Assistance Program benefits under SNAP may be able to replace some of the food that was lost when the power went out.
Any SNAP recipient whose food spoiled because of the outages can contact their caseworker to request replacement food benefits from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
The deadline for requesting replacement benefits is 10 days after the day the power went out at a household.
“The department understands the significant impact this storm and power outage has had on residents of the Grand Rapids area,” said Terrence Beurer, MDHHS deputy director of Field Operations Administration. “We want to make sure that people who are in need still have food to put on their tables to feed their families.”
A state of emergency was declared for Grand Rapids on Saturday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.