Storm damages property, causes uprooted trees and downed powerlines in metro Detroit

FOX 2 (WJBK) - A storm passing through southeast Michigan caused extensive destruction on Wednesday, leaving behind a lot of debris.

Several trees have been uprooted, buildings have been damaged, and downed power lines have been reported – causing power outages in several areas.

As of 10 p.m. Wedneday, over 11,000 DTE customers and over 400 Consumers Energy customers are without power, according to the outage maps. 

Gusts exceeding 60 mph swept across the area.

Tree branch impales car during storm

On Detroit's west side, a large tree came down on a young woman's car. Her mother, Natekia Battles, said her daughter was in the vehicle seconds before the tree crushed its roof.

"Some of the branches pierced a hole through her roof – the roof of the car and right behind the seat, where she would have been sitting at," Battles said. "She had her seat all the way back so that would have been really bad."

The City of Detroit told the family they will help remove the tree off her car.

Damaged buildings and homes

A family in Washington Township was among those left cleaning up after the fast moving storms. Their home was hit by flying metal after the storm destroyed a neighbor's metal carport. 

"There’s an apartment complex behind our house, and their carport is in the backyard. The power lines are down. Landscaping, all the yard stuff is all over the place," Rob Cherba of Washington Township.

The backyard was a disaster, Cherba added.

In Ferndale, several buildings were affected by the storm – including a restaurant called Voyager on Vester Street, and an apartment complex on Nine Mile near Paxton Street.

At the apartment complex, the roof was severely damaged, leaving some residents displaced. A tarp off the roof appeared to be covering part of the building Wednesday afternoon.

"Blew the roof off. I never seen anything like it." said Cynthia Watkins, who lives in the building. "I went upstairs to the 5th floor, and the lady was coming out of the apartment, and the ceiling just started falling on her head."

Both Watkins and the other resident were able to get outside safely. 

"I don’t know what happened. I thought the building blew up," Watkins said.

Kifah Kashat, an auto shop owner, felt the intensity of the storm as well.

"Blew the roof right off the place," Kashat said. "And my son told me, he said ‘Dad don’t even come here. Took the whole roof right off.’"

Water was pouring inside the shop on 9 Mile in Ferndale, he said. However, he is grateful his staff got out safely. 

Downed trees and power lines

One block over, on Paxton and Seratoga streets, the area saw several downed large trees and power lines. Crews were on the scene and chopped the trees up to clear them.

"This is the third year in a row that we've had this kind of vicious storms and major trees toppling," said Ferndale resident John Daquila, adding that the winds were howling.

In Shelby Township, residents were also left with downed trees and power lines on Roland Street, in the area of Auburn and Woodall roads.

No injuries were reported.

To check the DTE outage map, visit outage.dteenergy.com/map. For Consumers Energy's outage map, visit consumersenergy.com/outagemap.