Metro Detroit storms: 250K outages amid trail of damage; more active weather on way
DTE officials give power outage restoration update
Jerry Tullio, director, field operations, gave the latest numbers of power outage restoration efforts early Friday morning.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Metro Detroit is waking up to the aftermath of Thursday night's round of severe storms that left over 240,000 DTE customers out of power, downed trees and wind damage across the area.
Big picture view:
The I-96 corridor including Brighton and Howell, while as east as Marysville and Mount Clemens suffered heavy damage as wind gusts reached up to 70 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service is working to assess that damage as well as confirm whether or not a tornado touched down on Detroit's east side.
Numerous communities there were hammered by the storms, including the Islandview neighborhood.
DTE's Jerry Tullio said that there are about 20 broken poles in that area alone, including downed wires.
"We're securing the wires for the safety of the public, getting the poles back in the ground, getting the wire back up in the air and restoring power to everyone in that area," he said.
Some areas like Vernor and Beaufait currently have roadblocks set up due to downed power lines Friday morning.
DTE Outages
DTE: 65 percent of power should be restored by tonight
A DTE official said to expect 90 percent of power to be restored by Saturday night, adding that more than 300K customers were impacted by Thursday's storms.
Latest power outage numbers:
DTE says it has restored more than 145,00 customers who were impacted by the two rounds of storms Wednesday and Thursday.
Tullio, the director of operations, gave a press conference Friday morning saying that more than 300,000 customers were impacted yesterday by the severe weather.
Tullio said 145,000 have been restored, including 70,000 overnight.
He expects 65 percent of all powerless customers to be restored by the end of the day Friday and 90 percent by the end of the day Saturday.
There are 4,000 Storm Response Team members, including more than 1,500 line workers from outside of Michigan, he said.
DTE reminds us to stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines, and treat any downed line as live and dangerous, even if it looks harmless.
If you are using a generator, please remember to keep it outside and away from doors and windows.
"We know how difficult it is to be without power," Tullio said. "We appreciate everyone's, patience as we work around the clock to safely and efficiently restore everybody."
Detroit Tornado Investigation
Metro Detroit hit hard by storms; east side tornado being investigated
Southeastern Michigan was hammered by severe weather Thursday including a possible tornado on Detroit's east side.
The National Weather Service will be on the ground today to figure out whether it was a tornado that touched down on Detroit's east side, or whether these were straight line winds.
"We do have evidence that there may have been a tornado on the east side of Detroit, right around in the Mount Elliott, and Vernor area," Tullio said.
If this was a tornado, it would be the first one to hit Detroit in almost three decades, since 1997.
"The safety of our residents is my number one priority, and we have all of our departments working together to clean up our city, to keep our residents safe, and to ensure that we get through this in a safe way," Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield said in a social media plea for patience.
Residents can report storm damage and flooding on the Improve Detroit app. And if you come across a down power line in your yard in your neighborhood, you certainly want to stay as far away from that as you can. You want to treat it as live and then reach out to DTE as soon as you can.
Next Round of Storms
What's next:
Another bout of storms are expected today before things clear up for the weekend, Alan Longstreet says.
A risk of severe weather is possible with damaging winds and flooding rain being the greatest threats.
Localized areas could certainly pick up 1–2 inches, leading to flooded roads in spots.
There's a chance the second round of storms, arriving between 9 a.m. and noon, weakens as it slips into Southeast Michigan, though that’s far from a given.
The last of the storms are expected tonight.
The Source: Information for this report is from DTE and on-scene coverage.
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