Thousands remain without power in Michigan

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DETROIT (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of Michiganresidents remained without power Monday after a
weekend ice stormblacked out at least 488,000 homes and businesses, made drivinghazardous and may have
caused a jetliner with 180 people on board toslide off a taxiway at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.The
wintryblast hit Saturday night, and three of the state’s largest utilitiessaid about 314,000 of their
customers remained without service Mondayafternoon.The utilities said it would be days before most poweris
restored because of the difficulty of working around ice-brokenlines. Clinton and Genesee county authorities
were among those whoopened shelters for residents without power or heat.DTE EnergyCo. said that work was
underway to restore service to 88,000 blacked-outcustomers Monday afternoon out of about 150,000 affected
since thestorms hit."Crews are working 16-hour shifts around the clock torestore power," DTE
Energy spokeswoman Erica Donerson said in an email."Nearly 400 linemen from utilities in West Virginia,
Indiana, Ohio andGeorgia are assisting with restoration efforts."CMS Energy Corp.said that 303,000 of
its Consumers Energy unit’s power customers wereaffected, and 183,000 remained off line at 9:30 p.m.
Monday."Weknow this is a difficult time for our customers, but we want them toknow we are pouring as
many resources as possible into this effort,"said CMS Energy’s president for energy delivery, Mary
Palkovich.InLansing, about 35,000 customers of the city’s power company lostservice, and about 30,000 remain
off line Monday, the Lansing StateJournal reported.Marie Christensen of Genesee County’s ThetfordTownship
told MLive.com that she and her husband, Hans, were preparingto host the family for Christmas when the power
went out. She said shehas been told it may be after the holiday before the lights come backon.The couple
have been using their oven to heat the house, MLive.com reported."I’m no pioneer girl – I like my TV,
computer and iPad," Marie Christensen said, laughing. "But it could be worse. We’re
warm."DeltaAir Lines said freezing on a taxiway was suspected in an accident atDetroit Metropolitan
Airport early Monday in which an Atlanta-boundjetliner slid onto the grass. No one was hurt.The plane
"may havehit some black ice" before sliding from the taxiway onto a grassy areaaround 6:40 a.m.,
said Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant. He said thepassengers safely got off the plane and were rebooked on a
flightscheduled to take off later in the day.The plane was towed to aDelta hangar and didn’t appear damaged,
said airport spokesman BrianLassaline. He said conditions were wet and the surface temperaturedropped
overnight. The cause of the incident remains underinvestigation.There were no other disruptions to flights
at the Romulus airfield Monday, Lassaline said.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten orredistributed.

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