DTE: 5,000 customers still without power in SE Michigan

High winds knock out power to thousands in metro Detroit

DETROIT – DTE Energy says it has restored power to 145,000 customers impacted by the high winds that blew across southeast Michigan since Saturday, leaving 5,000 customers who are still without service.

At 9 p.m. Tuesday, DTE said it expected the remaining customers to be restored by midnight or early Wednesday.

DTE Energy crews continued to work through the night to restore service. The company said crews from Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin are assisting with restoration efforts.

More: High Wind Warning in effect

Macomb, St. Clair, and northern Oakland counties were the worst hit.

Severe thunderstorms, hail, and straight line winds whirled through causing major damages. Cars were crushed, signs were shattered and trees were tossed about. No injuries were reported.

A good portion of Michigan was impacted by the storm. Consumers Energy says 95,000 of their customers throughout the state experienced outages.

Local 4 spoke to neighbors in Lake Orion Monday night, who said they were caught off guard by the damage the storm left.

"What the heck happened?" said one neighbor. "This was a mini tornado that's come through."

Trees were ripped from the earth, sending them crashing onto cars and houses. Dozens of tombstones were cracked, split and knocked over.

"This is the worse thing over ever seen in this area," one neighbor said. "You feel like you've gone into a war zone. It's terrible. Michigan is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get."

Both Consumers and DTE had crews out all day working to get power restored as quickly as possible.

DTE Energy offers this power outage map to help customers track outages.

Call DTE Energy at 800-477-4747 to report a downed line.