Metro Detroit is once again left reeling from damage done by heavy rains.
The southeast Michigan area, still recovering from flooding just eightdays ago,accumulated another 1-2 inches of rain during a wave of storms Saturday afternoon and evening, said National Weather Service White Lake Township meteorologist Megan Varcie,leading to flooding on southbound M-10 and other areas, plus power outages and at least one confirmed tornado.
Though most flooding was cleared overnight, all lanes of southbound M-10 were still blocked Sunday morning, accordingto theMichigan Department of Transportation. M-10 fully reopened by the afternoon.
Possible tornadoes
The NWSreceivedreports of tornadoes Saturday night in Port Austin, Armada and Oakland County. The tornado in White Lake has been confirmed by the NWS, but the other two locations are still awaiting confirmation. Varcie said Sunday that the NWSis sending a storm survey team to each location to verify, look at the damage anddeterminethe intensity.
“The difference betweenyour ordinary thunderstorms and tornadic thunderstorms is going to be the amount of wind shear in the atmosphere,” Varcie said. “Soit'sbasically, ifyou can get a rotating thunderstorm, which we call a supercell. If you can get any rotation within thunderstorms, that makes conditions more favorable for tornadoes to form.”
Oakland County received reports oftornadoes, flooding, blocked roads and structural damage to homes and businesses, according to a news release.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation to support the safety of all residents in Oakland County,” Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said in the release. “We urge all residents to report downed wires and stay away from standing water.”
One Twitter user shared a photo of aBP station in Madison Heights with its canopy tipped over.
Power outages
About121,328 DTE customers were without power as of 2:45p.m. Sunday, according to theDTE outage center.
DTE had more than 500 crews in the field and “will be working around the clock to restore power to impacted customers as quickly and safely as possible,” the utility reported on its website.
Most Consumers Energy customers in Michiganwho lost power Saturday night hadregained it Sunday morning, said spokespersonBrian Wheeler. Butabout 7,098 customers were stillwithout poweras ofSunday afternoon. Wheeler said most of the outages arescattered,occurringin Genesee County, as well as Saginaw, Bay Cityand Midland.
“The biggest issue in cases like this are wind gusts,” Wheeler said. “Usually when you get winds that top 50 miles per hour,that'swhere you begin to see not just trees that are near power lines, but you could have entire trees or branches falling a great distance.”
Macomb County
Armada Townshipdeclared a state of emergency andis facing significant damage to homes and businesses after beinghit by a suspected tornado Saturday night,said Macomb County Executive Mark Hackelin a Sunday afternoon news conference.
There are no reported injuries or deaths, he said.
Hackel said that National Weather Service was on the ground, investigating as he spoke, but that he and city officials are consideringitto bea tornadobased on the patterns of debris and wind.
Michigan State Police Lt. Mike Shaw said those who aren’t from the area shouldn’t come “just to take a look” and that it’s hard for first responders to do what they need to do with visitors trying to get a look at the damage.
Each speaker at the news conference emphasized how importanteach and everyunit was in helping mitigate the impact of the tornado and stressed the value of community.
“If responding to emergency situations or disasters were an Olympic sport, this team here behind me would have won gold,” Hackel said.
The biggest challenge facing the village is the lack of electricity –– it’s a small town and it’s hard to keep the food good, according toJohn Paterek, Armada Township supervisor.
DTE spokesperson Stephanie Beres said it’s hard to know exactly how long it will take crews to restore power, but added thatit will likely be Monday at the soonest.
“We’ve got more than 100 employees out in the field right now working to assess the damage, working to restore power where we're able to, and continuing to clean up the mess that was created by the weather pattern last night,” Beres said. “We will continue to work around the clock to get power restored as quickly as they can. We’re hoping to get the fire station and some of our critical care facilities,i.e.thenursing home just down the street, back up and running as soon as possible.”
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Detroiters should get a little break from the rain for the next few days, Varcie said, with the forecast predicting highs in the upper 80s and sunny skies through Tuesday.
Associated Press contributed. Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com.
