OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – Storms hit Metro Detroit hard around 13 Mile Road in Southfield, Berkley, and Beverly Hills Wednesday night.
The clean-up continues even as another round of rough weather hits Southeast Michigan on Thursday (June 20).
You don’t have to go far to find severe tree damage and other kinds of damage there.
There are wires down at the corner of Rutland and Pierce streets, and there is a hive of activity trying to get things back to normal.
It gets noisy after a storm as wood chippers, leaf blowers, and chainsaws get put to use.
While most of the trees somehow found the middle of the road, like the one on Locherbie Avenue, where multiple, massive silver maples wound up obliterating and blocking traffic, some did fall on houses.
“It was an unnerving 10 minutes, and it felt like an hour,” said Brad Peters.
A backyard tree poked a hole through his kitchen ceiling as the wind whipped up in a violent hurry.
“The house was shaking, trees were hitting the back of the house,” Peters said. “My son was stuck in his car. We told him to stay in his car until it blew over.”
Jessica Lusk and her family emerged Wednesday night to see an unusual sight of a trampoline 10 feet off the ground wedged into power lines.
“It seemed to blow through fairly quickly, but it was very strong, and we didn’t realize the severity of the damage until after it passed, and we started to wander outside a little but safely to make sure no one got hurt,” said Lusk.
DTE line crews found broken poles and downed wires everywhere. With the power out, traffic lights weren’t working in many places.
Drone 4 showed us how Oakland County drivers could have been more adept at navigating four-way stops, including on 13 Mile Road, where one lane was closed for much of the day.
A strong storm cell rolled through around 3 p.m. the heavy rain stopped clean-up efforts.
Water flooded the street, and now everyone is watching the sky to see whether more stormy weather will complicate things.
On the bright side, DTE estimates that power will be restored on Friday, June 21, 2024.