Nearly 350,000 utility customers in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula were without power Tuesday evening after a storm swept across the state in the early afternoon.
Consumers Energy reported about 153,000 customers affected by the outages, while DTE Energy reported about 197,000.
“We know how difficult it is to be without power,” DTE Energy said in a message on its Outage Map website. “Our storm response teams are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore service to customers – and we are bringing in 600 teams from outside our area to speed up restoration.”
The energy suppliers have warned the population to keep a distance of at least 7.5 meters from fallen cables.
The National Weather Service issued a series of severe thunderstorm warnings Tuesday afternoon as the storm front moved across the state. The weather service said damaging hail and wind gusts of up to 70 mph were expected in Detroit and other parts of southeast Michigan.
The storms came on a day when extreme heat – with heat indexes exceeding 40 degrees – also interrupted the start of the school year in some parts of the state. Grand Rapids Public Schools canceled classes Tuesday and the Detroit Public Schools Community District dismissed students three hours early to avoid the worst of the heat.
