Crews work to clean up after storms hit Michigan; thousands without power

50,000 still without power; Oakland County hit hardest

DETROIT – Crews and residents are working to clean up after severe thunderstorms crossed Michigan's Lower Peninsula, prompting flooding and knocking down trees and power lines.

DTE Energy says Friday at 4 p.m. that about 50,000 of its customers were without electrical service following the Thursday storms. At its peak, the utility says about 113,000 homes and businesses lost power. Oakland County had most of the outages.

DTE says it hopes to have the majority of the outages repaired by Friday night. The rest will be worked on through the weekend.

READ: DTE Energy statement on progress of outage repair

A few thousand customers of CMS Energy Corp.'s Consumers Energy unit lost power.

Flooding was reported in and around Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint and Saginaw. Rising waters snarled traffic for part of the evening. The National Weather Service says some areas got a big dump of rain, including several inches in the Saginaw and Flint areas.

Downed trees and power lines prompted officers to close some roadways.

One of the most noticeable is the problem of stop light outages along the M-59 corridor in Oakland County.  DTE says it may be 11 p.m. Sunday before all the power is restored

The intersection of Voorheis and S. Lynn in Waterford is closed because of downed power lines.

At Cass Lake Road and M-59, a gas station is surrounded by booms to prevent gasoline from leaking into the storm drains.

Nearby, a fireworks tent blew over in the storm.

More than 6 inches of rain fell in a short time last night, inundating the storm sewers and leading to widespread flooding.

As of 6am, DTE Energy is reporting 68,000 customers without power after storms moved through southeast Michigan. 

The energy company says the majority of outages are in northern Oakland County and in the thumb of Michigan.

IMAGES: N. Oakland County floods

There are a number of wires down. DTE has asked for assistance from other power companies to help with repairs.

For a better look at the distribution of power outages in DTE's service area check out this map.