DTE Energy: 310,000 customers without power Sunday after storms

DETROIT – Heavy downpours, thunderstorms and wind gusts in excess of 70 mph from Friday and Saturday night's storms that moved through southeast Michigan left thousands of DTE customers without power.

DTE reported nearly 600,000 customers were impacted.

UPDATE: DTE Energy: 250,000 remain without power Monday morning

As of Sunday evening, DTE reported it was able to restore power to about 290,000 customers, leaving 310,000 customers still without power. 

Neary 500 workers from around the country are being brought in to help assist crews restore power.

Saturday night's storm downed 1,900 power lines, making it the worst storm our region has experienced this year and one of the largest since the March 2017 windstorm, according to DTE. 

The number of power outages has continuously increased since the storms started. As of Sunday morning 375,000 customers were without power. DTE reported 360,000 customers were without power Saturday night. On Friday night, 72,000 power outages were reported by DTE. 

Statment from DTE on when power will be restored 

"Overall, we expect to restore 150,000 customers today and another 150,000 tomorrow, which means we will have 80% of our customers restored by the end of the day on Monday. We plan to have 90% of customers restored by the end of the day Tuesday and the remainder restored by the end of the day Wednesday. 

DTE currently has well over 1,000 people in the field today, including about 115 from out of state, who are assisting with restoration efforts. Assistance from additional crews in neighboring states has been delayed as they are also experiencing the weather events similar to what we have had here in Michigan over the past 48 hours."

How to stay safe 

Firefighters are urging people to stay safe. Crews will be working around the clock to get the power restored. In the meantime, here are a few things you can do to stay safe and cool.

• Drink a lot of water.
• If you've lost power and don't have air conditioning, look for cooling shelters in your area.
• Keep the blinds closed, and look for shady areas where you can relax.
• You can also monitor outages in your area using the DTE outage app. 

Keep an eye out for severe weather alerts and the radar here: 

• Michigan Weather Radar page
• Metro Detroit Weather Radar page
• Grand Rapids Weather Radar page
• Find all weather forecasts and news at ClickOnDetroit.com/WeatherCenter.
• Check current Weather Alerts here.