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Livonia opens warming center for people dealing with power outages
Livonia residents impacted by power outages from this week's winter weather can head to the recreation center as DTE Energy works to get the lights back on across Southeast Michigan.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - The damage wrought by a severe ice storm that rocked Southeast Michigan and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of homes is coming into focus.
The prognosis: the destruction is severe. According to DTE, it is estimating that 95% of its customers will have the power turned back on by the end of Sunday, Feb. 26. The company gave an update at 11:30 a.m. You can read what they had to say here.
Restoration is expected at least four days after the storm - a period of time that could bring its own series of problems due to freezing conditions moving back in on Friday. Wind gusts are also expected to drive temperatures down even further.
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Ice storm conditions may taper off overnight
The ice storm warning expires at 4 a.m. but Rich Luterman tells us what to expect
Some 519,000 homes were without power Thursday after ice that reached three-quarters of an inch thick in some spots brought down branches and weighed down power lines that snapped.
There were nearly 3,000 incidents of downed wires - another hazard that led to at least one death on the west side of the state after a firefighter came into contact with a live wire.
MORE: Check out the latest outage numbers here
Another Detroit family said their two dogs died after being electrocuted as well.
Myriad instances of downed wires prompted DTE to ask customers to stay off their yards and away from power lines to avoid getting shocked. Here's what to do if you see a down wire.
Consumers energy didn't fair much better, reporting at around 200,000 power outages across west and central portions in the southern part of Michigan.
Icy conditions could persist throughout the day if temperatures don't rise above freezing fast enough. See the latest forecast for Thursday and Friday here.
State police have also reported at least 55 crashes throughout Metro Detroit, primarily due to the ice storm and slippery road conditions.
Luckily, none were serious. MSP blamed "some type of bad driving behavior" on the wrecks.