Thousands Remain Without Power After Severe Storms
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Around 120,000 homes and businesses remain without power following Tuesday's severe thunderstorms that struck metro Detroit.
The storms brought 60 mile-per-hour wind gusts that knocked down trees and power lines and blacked out about 169,000 electricity customers.
"Whenever there's strong winds like that, especially with all the lightning that can directly strike electric equipment, we're going to have a lot of customers out of power," said Scott Simons, DTE Energy spokesperson.
Simons said about 80,000 of the outages were in Wayne County Wedndesday morning. The others are in Oakland, Washtenaw, Macomb, Livingston and St. Clair counties.
Approximately 30,000 customers remain out of service heading into Thursday morning.
Check the DTE outage map, HERE.
DTE Energy said approximately 125 additional crews from across the Midwest are expected to arrive Wednesday to assist workers in the restoration effort.
The gusty storm toppled trees and caused more than 1,000 power lines to come down. Citizens are urged to stay at least 20 feet away from any downed wire and anything it's in contact with, and call DTE Energy at 800-477-4747 to report the downed line.
Charlie Curmi, who lives in on Falcon Street in southwest Detroit, said he asked the city multiple times in the past 10 years to take down a massive tree in front of his house that he feared would fall down. His fears came true during the storm.
"It didn't fall fast, it just, like in slow motion. I said 'There it goes. There goes my truck,' and sure enough that's what it did for me. It fell on my truck," he said.
The tree's branches caused damage to at least three houses, not to mention bringing up the cement slabs on the sidewalk.
MORE: Heavy Rains Flood Area Freeways, Causing Power Outages, Damage [PHOTOS]
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