Storm aftermath: Trail of toppled power poles left from Tuesday's wake in Rochester Hills
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (FOX 2) - The Fox 2 Drones were high in the skies over Rochester Hills as DTE and other utility crews work on the mess left behind by Mother Nature Tuesday night.
DTE Energy has called in about 800 crews from around the region to help out in a monumental effort to restore power. There are 95,000 customers still in the dark - down from over 200,000 24 hours ago.
Among the damage was about half a dozen toppled power poles along South Livernois near Avon Road.
"I have no idea how a pole that thick just broke in half," said Lucas Ribeiro.
Ribeiro is talking about one of those poles located near his house - impacted by 70 miles per hour - plus gusts of wind that knocked out power to a plethora of homes in the area.
"Our house is, the roof is messed up. But thank God everyone is alright," he said.
And he means that last part literally. His dad was cutting the lawn right below the pole when it fell from the storm.
"Thank God he was able to jump and get out of the way," he said.
FOX 2: "He was that close?"
"Yeah. He was right below it," Ribeiro said.
As crews tossed the cut down tree limbs into woodchippers and made more way for power restoration teams to do their work, others are trying to find ways to stay cool without AC.
"In the old days nobody had air conditioning," said Patsy. "You’d be opening up the refrigerator and got cool you know?"
Thats Patsy's back up plan.
She had to navigate road closures to get to her daughter's house - just one of several challenges awaiting.
"So we went down and we came in and we seen all the lights in the neighborhood were out," she said. "People were trying to hook up their (generators) you know? We’re back here today to kind of help her out."
