7 p.m. update: BWL has most power restored and Spartans claim victory after 3.5-hour weather delay
Sarah Lehr
EAST LANSING — Thunderstorms with lightning forced the evacuation of Spartan Stadium and took out power to more than 12,000 area homes and businesses on Saturday afternoon.
By 7 p.m., all but about 100 customers had power restored, according to a Lansing Board of Water & Light outage map.
BWL reported hours earlier that a substation had been hit by a lightning strike.
"Crews have begun the process of transferring circuits to other substations in order to restore power," the utility said in a statement on Facebook.
For a time, BWL's online outage map showed much of East Lansing without power, including the Grand River Avenue business district, and East Lansing Police urged cautious driving, as many traffic signals were out. Much of Lansing's east side also had outages.
About 3:20 p.m., BWL's outage map listed 12,075 customers without power. At 7 p.m., the number was 113.
Tens of thousands of football fans were ordered to evacuate Spartan Stadium after 1 p.m. during Michigan State's game against Penn State. Spartan Stadium has capacity for more than 75,000 people, although it did not appear to be full at the start of the game. The day's official attendance, announced just before 7 p.m., was 71,605, although by then thousands had already departed.
Spectators who left the stadium were offered shelter in Munn Ice Arena, IM Sports West and Wells Hall. Buses were running to Lot 89 and handicap parking lots in East Lansing.
MORE:
No. 24 Michigan State stuns No. 7 Penn State with last-second field goal, 27-24
Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State's 27-24 win over Penn State
Emotional homecoming at Michigan State for 75-year-old Army veteran with cancer
Play resumed shortly after 4:30 p.m., with fans returning to the stadium beginning at 4 p.m.
It is the third time a game at Spartan Stadium has been delayed. The Spartans had two games at the start of the 2013 season, against Western Michigan and South Florida, when the stands had to be cleared due to weather concerns.
Big Ten rules force a 30-minute wait after a lightning strike, with the clock reset each time one is seen.
The Spartans were trailing Penn State 14-7 in the second quarter at the time of the evacuation.
With less than a minute to go at 7 p.m., the teams were tied at 24. MSU managed a successful field goal to pull ahead, 27-24 at the buzzer, an outcome that rewarded hearty fans who stayed to the end.
Contact Sarah Lehr at (517) 377-1056 or slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr. Chris Solari contributed reporting with the Detroit Free Press.