Michigan power outages: Almost 430K without electricity Friday morning
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Storms overnight have left nearly 430,000 DTE Energy and Consumers Energy customers in the dark Friday.
As of 12:40 p.m. Friday, DTE is reporting that 253,998 customers do not have power. That number has been steadily rising all morning.
As of 12:25 p.m., 175,572 Consumers customers do not have power.
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DTE said "extreme weather" led to downed power lines and the outages. Thunderstorms with strong winds and heavy rain moved through Southeast Michigan both Wednesday into Thursday and Thursday into Friday, so some customers have been without power since that first round of storms.
Check the DTE outage map and report an outage here.
The company said it anticipates 80% of customers will be restored by the end of Sautrday.
DTE has a process for determining where restoration efforts begin first.
The priority is figuring out where lines are down and getting public safety deployed to handle these wires.
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Next, damage assessment is performed to see the extent of the damage and what crews will need to fix the power outages.
After the damage assessment is done, crews start focusing on restoring power to critical infrastructure first. This includes police and fire departments, pumping stations, and hospitals. Large clusters of outages are next. Then, single outages are handled last.
What to do if you see a downed wire:
If there is an emergency, such as a fire or you see a power line on an unoccupied car, first call 911 then call the power company. DTE Energy can be reached at 800-477-4747. Consumers Energy can be reached at 800-477-5050.
For non-emergency situations, you can report the wire to DTE online here.
Stay at least 20 feet from the wires. Do not touch the power lines or use an object to touch them. Do not drive over downed wires. Also, avoid touching anything the wire touches, such as a fence or a puddle.
Be sure to keep pets and children away from the lines, too.
If you are inside your vehicle and a wire falls on it, DTE says to stay inside and call 911.
However, if you must get out of the vehicle, DTE advises removing loose clothing, and getting out without touching the frame. Jump with your feet together to avoid touching the vehicle and ground at the same time. Do not remove your feet until you are at least 20 feet away from the vehicle.