DETROIT – With DTE crews working to bring back power to hundreds of thousands of customers still in the dark, the company said about 95% of outages are expected to be restored by the end of Sunday.
As of 11:45 p.m. on Aug. 12, more than 520,000 customers were without power following overnight storms. Power for more than 150,000 customers was restored by Thursday night.
StormPins: Photos of lightning, downed trees, downed power lines, flooding after storms hammer Metro Detroit
The vast majority of outages – around 95% -- should be restored by the end of Sunday. For specific estimated restoration times, please visit our outage center (https://t.co/h9dywhqqnQ).
— DTE_Energy (@DTE_Energy) August 13, 2021
It has been a summer of storms and while surrounding states have not had nearly as many outages and problems in Michigan, DTE officials said it’s because the state was hit harder.
Power outages were also the reason for flooding on Interstates 94 and 75 because it went to multiple substations, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Although DTE said is has called in 2,800 crews to address the outages, the issue is how to prevent what is becoming a common occurrence this summer.
Federal dollars are already pouring into the state as part of COVID relief, but Congress is working on an infrastructure package.
Nearly a million Michigan households lose power -- Why does this keep happening?
Nearly one million Michigan households were without power Thursday after severe storms blew through the Midwest.
Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois all saw outages, but Michigan seems to have been hit the hardest, having more than 10 times the outages than the other states.
At its peak in Wisconsin, the state had 63,000 customers without power. Illinois and Indiana peaked at about 30,000 each. Ohio peaked at 62,000. Michigan, however, peaked at 864,000 customers without power on as temperatures soar on one of the hottest days of the year.