By David Fleet
Editor
As of 6:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 12 over 500,000 DTE Energy customers are without power after two severe waves of weather swept through Michigan Wednesday afternoon and again early Thursday morning.
On Thursday morning, Fire Chief David Kwapis, Brandon Fire Department reported about 30 storm related calls.
“We’ve had many trees down and nine electrical poles heavily damaged in front of Brandon High School on the east side of M-15,” said Kwapis. “The majority of Brandon Township is out of power and it’s going to be a while before it returns.”
Crews from DTE were working around the clock on restoring the power. Wind gusts over 70 mph and heavy rain caused extensive damage across the service territory, including more than 3,100 downed wires, broken poles and tree-related damage.
According to the National Weather Service, isolated wind damage is possible during severe storms when wind reaches 40-50 mph. During strong storms, straight line wind speeds can exceed 100 mph.
“Please stay away from electrical lines that my be on the roads or in yards,” said Kwapis. “As the clean up continues often more problems are discovered. DTE is out working slow down and give the crews a chance to get power restored.”