More than 200,000 DTE Energy customers across Metro Detroit lost power Thursday afternoon after severe thunderstorms and a confirmed tornado tore through southeast Michigan, and utility officials say some homes could stay dark for days, according to ClickOnDetroit.
Key Points
- More than 200,000 customers lost power, with one report putting the number above 230,000 at the peak, per ClickOnDetroit
- The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-0 tornado touched down in Marysville, St. Clair County, with winds between 65 and 85 mph, according to Fox 2 Detroit
- Tornado warnings were also issued for Oakland, Washtenaw, Wayne and Livingston counties
- Wind gusts reached up to 70 mph across the region, downing trees and damaging roofs and mobile homes
- DTE says roughly 80% of customers hit in the first wave of storms could see service restored by the end of Thursday, though full restoration in hard-hit areas may take longer
What Happened
- Storms rolled through Wednesday night into Thursday morning, then intensified again Thursday afternoon
- A building collapsed on Detroit’s east side during the storms, and a large tree split near a home’s back porch in Center Line
- A tree fell onto a rental house in Madison Heights, and damage was heaviest along the I-96 corridor
- Detroit Metro Airport issued a ground stop that lasted roughly until 4:15 p.m.
- DTE brought in about 400 out-of-state linemen, with another 800 expected to arrive to help with restoration
Michigan has seen a run of destructive summer storms this year, and this one landed the way many do: fast-moving cells that combine straight-line wind damage with an isolated but confirmed tornado, rather than one clean, predictable event. That combination is part of why restoration times vary so widely block to block, even within the same DTE service territory.
What Homeowners Should Do
- Treat every downed line as live: stay at least 25 feet away and report it to DTE rather than attempting to move it
- Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible; food generally stays safe for about four hours in a closed fridge and 48 hours in a full freezer
- If running a generator, keep it outdoors and at least 20 feet from windows and doors to prevent carbon monoxide from entering the home
- Never plug a portable generator directly into a home’s electrical system without a properly installed transfer switch
- Check on elderly or medically vulnerable neighbors who may depend on powered medical equipment
DTE customers can report outages and check restoration estimates through the utility’s outage map, which tends to update as crews clear individual circuits rather than all at once, meaning next-door neighbors can come back online hours or even days apart.