Thousands Still Without Power After Storms
[photogallerylink id=12546 align=left] DTE Energy crews were hard at work Friday to restore power to tens of thousands of people affected by Thursday's night's thunderstorms. DTE says it has all available crews working to restore power and it's brought in crews from other states, including Ohio, to get people back online. Late Friday afternoon, DTE's Eileen Dixon said they were making progress.
"We have restored service to 40,000 customers, which means we've got approximately 64,000 customers still out without power. We are hoping to have the majority of those folks , probably about 90-percent back up by midnight tonight," Dixon said.
According to Dixon, most of the remaining outages were in Oakland and Wayne counties.
"We had winds 60, 70 miles per hour through a large part of our service territory so there were alot of lines brought down," DTE Energy spokesman John Austerberry said during a live interview on WWJ Newsradio 950.
A total of 106,000 homes and businesses lost power after storms roared through Metro Detroit Thursday afternoon and evening.
Full restoration could be complete by Saturday.
Consumers Energy spokesman Dan Bishop says 39,000 of its customers lost power in the storms, and about 35,000 were still out late Thursday night.
Spotters with the National Weather Service report a 70 miles per hour wind gust near Armada in northern Macomb County and 60 miles per hour wind gusts near Lake Orion, Milford and Holly.
Several lightning strikes hit homes and started fires in Berkley and Farmington Hills. Nearly 2 inches of rain fell in a hour and a half in Clarkston.
Hail about an inch in diameter was reported near Van Dyke and Eight Mile in Detroit and in St. Clair Shores.
Check the latest weather information here.
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