More than 830,000 Michigan households were in the dark on Thursday morning after multiple rounds of severe storms blew through the Lower Peninsula over the last two days.
As of about 5:11 p.m. on Thursday, DTE Energy reported more than 582,429 customers without power in Southeast Michigan, and Consumers Energy reported more than 216,618 outages in Western and Central Lower Michigan.
It’s the biggest power outage event since the record-breaking March 2017 wind storm, which resulted in nearly one million outages statewide, about 700,000 of them from DTE Energy. At the time, DTE called it “historic” in nature.
This summer has been severe storm after severe storm, with multiple power outage events surpassing 100,000 outages, with downed trees the main culprit. Residents in hard-hit areas have dealt with multiple power outages, flooding in basements, neighborhoods and freeways, and some have experienced severe property damage.
DTE said on Thursday morning that they are addressing more than 3,100 downed power lines, which is around the same amount as the 2017 storm.
StormPins: Photos of lightning, downed trees, downed power lines, flooding after storms hammer Metro Detroit
The 2017 wind storm hit in March, when the ground was softer after an unusually warm winter. This resulted in trees being more easily uprooted.
There are currently no concrete restoration times for people who are in the dark, but it’s likely it’ll take several days to restore power to the majority of the area.
More: Tracking DTE Energy power outages in SE Michigan
Related: Another major flood event in Metro Detroit: Should we blame global warming?