By: Jasmine West
More than 240,000 DTE Energy customers were without power Friday morning after another round of severe storms tore through Metro Detroit, bringing damaging winds, downed trees and power lines and leaving crews investigating whether a tornado touched down on Detroit’s east side.
The Thursday storms followed severe weather that had already moved through Southeast Michigan Wednesday, creating back-to-back rounds of damage across the region.
Some of the hardest-hit areas stretched along the I-96 corridor near Brighton and Howell and east into communities including Mount Clemens and Marysville. In Detroit, damage was reported across the east side, including the Islandview neighborhood and around Mount Elliott and Vernor.
DTE officials said more than 300,000 customers were affected by Thursday’s weather at the height of the outages. By Friday morning, more than 240,000 remained without power, according to FOX 2.
On Detroit’s east side, DTE Director of Field Operations Jerry Tullio said crews found roughly 20 broken utility poles in one area, along with 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,” Tullio said.
Roadblocks were also reported Friday morning around Vernor and Beaufait because of fallen power lines.
DTE said Friday that its Storm Response Team had restored power to more than 70,000 customers affected by the multiple waves of storms Wednesday and Thursday.
The utility expects to restore service to 65% of affected customers by the end of Friday, 90% by the end of Saturday and the remaining customers by the end of Sunday.
DTE said 3,400 Storm Response Team members are working on restoration efforts, including more than 1,000 field workers brought in from outside Michigan.
The damage in Detroit is also drawing attention from the National Weather Service.
Meteorologists are expected to survey damage on the city’s east side to determine whether a tornado touched down Thursday or whether the destruction was caused by 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 Friday morning.
As of Friday morning, a tornado had not been confirmed.
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield said city departments are working together as crews assess the damage and clear affected areas.
“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,” Sheffield said in a social media message.
The danger is not over for residents cleaning up.
DTE is urging people to stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines and treat every fallen line as energized and dangerous. Residents using generators should keep them outside and away from doors and windows.
Additional storms remain possible Friday.
The National Weather Service said Southeast Michigan faces a marginal to slight risk for severe weather, with the strongest threat mainly south of M-59 Friday morning and another chance for severe storms near the Ohio border later in the day.
Heavy rain is also a concern after several days of storms. Forecasters warned that repeated thunderstorms could produce localized flooding, particularly in areas where the ground is already saturated.
More seasonable temperatures and lower humidity are expected to return for the weekend.
