Michael Zaccardelli heard about Tuesday evening’s incoming storm and decided to move his car off his Royal Oak street. Just 15 minutes later, a tree in his front yard fell onto the exact spot where his car had been parked.
“It would’ve been a complete loss. Everyone’s safe and just really thankful no one got hurt,” Zaccardelli told WXYZ-TV (Channel 7).
Clean up continued on Wednesday, a day after fierce storms led to widespread power outages across Michigan and a wild series of water emergencies for Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies.
Two rounds of storms on Tuesday brought wind gusts exceeding 70 mph and heat that topped 90 degrees.
By mid-day Wednesday, Michigan’s two largest electricity providers, Consumers Energy and DTE Energy, reduced outages from more than 320,000 customers to around 230,000 by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Brian Kalka, DTE’s vice president of distribution operations, told the Associated Press the utility hoped to have 90% of its outages repaired by Thursday. But he said “we have devastation” from eastern Michigan’s thumb region to almost the Ohio border, referring to a distance of more than 150 miles.
“This is not necessarily lifting a limb off of a line and restoring power. You’ve got broken poles. You’ve got broken infrastructure,” Kalka said.
Contract crews from Michigan and others from Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Tennessee were working, the company said in a release.
“Our #1 priority is to get the lights back on safely and quickly for the households and businesses who are counting on us,” said Chris Fultz, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for restoration, in the statement. “Our lineworkers have trained for situations like this. We’re bringing in more crews to ensure we meet our commitments to our customers.”
In Oakland County, significant retail areas and the Village of Rochester Hills lost power, as did half of downtown Rochester, seemingly all of Clarkston and much of Independence Township. More than 10,000 Pontiac residents were without power Wednesday morning.
Broken tree limbs littered cities such as Ann Arbor, Detroit and Pleasant Ridge.
The city of Plymouth was hit hard by the overnight storms, officials said.
“The north section of the city was hit hardest with tree damage and trees falling on a few houses,” the city said in a post on its Facebook page. “A majority of the city is without power and DTE Energy is aware of the situation.”
As the first round of storms swept in the sheriff’s marine patrol had an unprecedented six water emergencies in 90 minutes: Two capsized vessels on Walled Lake with reports of victims in the water; a possible drowning in White Lake Township’s Tull Lake, where a boat was adrift with life vests and personal items floating nearby; a near-drowning reported on West Bloomfield Township’s Walnut Lake; a capsized rowboat on Cass Lake with personal items nearby and a missing kayaker on Walled Lake.
All people involved in the reported incidents were safely recovered and accounted for by the end of the day.
“The night had a violent storm that had the potential of inflicting serious injuries or death in addition to property damage,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. “From our call takers to the first responders, our team seamlessly handled the massive number of calls for service in amazing fashion.”
Oakland County cities opening cooling centers for relief from heat
Plymouth Township police issued an alert advising drivers to avoid Beck Road near State Highway 14, where the storm struck down a set of railroad crossing gates.
While the storm wasn't the worst the city of Birmingham has seen, they received around 20 calls reporting downed wires, trees, and branches, said Fire Chief and Emergency Manager Paul Wells.
"With wires down and tree branches and some trees that were leaning on wires, a couple wires that were on structures like garages and houses, but it was nothing too bad, you know, nothing like we've seen in the past," Wells said. "We had some trees across the road where the firefighters had to, you know, get out and cut up the trees to make the roads passable.
In Rochester Hills, residents reported power poles knocked over on Livernois Road.
As of early Wednesday evening, no downed-wire injuries were reported.
The Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital was running on generators as of 5 p.m. Wednesday due to power outages, a hospital representative said.
Many schools were closed Wednesday: All Ann Arbor Public Schools, no school-age care by Rochester Community Schools, which closed University Hills and Meadow Brook Elementary schools, multiple buildings in the Royal Oak district, including Royal Oak High School, and Oak Ridge, Northwood and Upton Elementary; Southfield Public Schools, 11 schools in the Utica district and all Ypsilanti Community Schools.
Eastpointe Community Schools remained open but buses were limited to major roads to avoid downed trees.
The National Weather Service outlook is for patchy morning fog and partly cloudy skies Thursday and an 80-degree high; sunshine and 88 degrees on Friday with a chance of showers from late afternoon into early Saturday. Skies will be mostly clear for the weekend with temperatures close to 80. The weather service predicts clear skies and 70 degrees for Monday, Labor Day.
---The Associated Press and The Detroit News contributed to this story.
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