Thunderstorms, High Winds Leave Michigan Residents With Power Outages, Property Damage
(WWJ) -- Severe storms packing high winds, heavy rains and hail moved through southeast Michigan on Friday evening, downing trees and power lines across the area.
DTE officials reported that up to 350,000 homes and businesses are without power, with the number of outages expected to grow into Saturday. Some of the largest outages have been reported near Livonia, Southgate, Romulus, Taylor and Waterford.
In some of the scarier instances, a large tree fell over a railway and collided with an Amtrak train near Ann Arbor on its way to Chicago and a large tent collapsed over a group of people at the St. Linus Church Festival in Dearborn Heights. There are no word of injuries, although several people were trapped under the tent. There is no word on if the festival will resume on Saturday.
Marc Breckenridge with Emergency Management in Washtenaw County told WWJ about conditions that moved through that area.
"We also had a thunderstorm complex reinvigorate," Breckenridge said. "After it went through Saline, it looked like it was weakening and it got itself back together again, and right before it went into Wayne County we had a lot of wind damage reported in Ypsilanti Township."
In Saline, there are reports of nickel-sized hail and numerous tree limbs down. Breckenridge said that some of the worst damage came in the Saline and Dexter areas with downed power lines and roof damage due to the high winds.
"We've had a lot of reports of wind damage here -- not very much flooding, not very much in the way of hail," Breckenridge said. "The biggest reports were about wind damage."
Storm sirens were going off in Livonia with heavy rain and high winds, with wires and tree branches reported down near 5 Mile Rd. and Merriman area.
Several high school football games were postponed in Farmington and Walled Lake. Very high winds and heavy rains were reported near Harsens Island. Trees were also reported to be down near Groveland and Dixie Highway in the Holly area and in Port Sanilac, as well as in the Fenton area.
There were also reports of a 70 mile-per-hour gust in the Warren area, a 62-mile per hour wind gust in Manchester in Washtenaw County, 60-mile per hour in Romulus, 50 miles per hour in Ann Arbor and 49 miles per hour in Howell.
Crews will be working through the night and into the weekend to restore the power.
