DETROIT – “The wind was so intense and the rain hurt to the touch. I know it was over 60 mph winds,” said John Eckerly of Whitmore Lake.
He is one of thousands of residents who were left without power after storms rolled through southeast Michigan on Friday night.
Conditions are especially hard because the power outages have left people with no air conditioning on one of the hottest days this summer.
“Out for more than 48 hours, we’ll see,” said Eckerly. The storms brought down big tree limbs and power lines.
“There were trees falling. I was waiting for it to hit my car,” said Roma Metcalf of Whitmore Lake.
Polly Market appears to be the the coolest place in town Saturday.
The credit and debit card machines were powered down, but the freezers and coolers are powered up.
“We are lucky our generator has a switch gear. It just goes on and off on its own; best investment we’ve ever made," said Joey Acho of Polly Market. Customers coming in are hot. Really hot.
Linda Walton is here stocking up on ice. No power means not only is her air conditioning out – so is her refrigerator. “Yes, we have a family event, food made ahead. I don’t want it to spoil,” Walton said.
It got so hot that Eckerly jumped in Whitmore Lake at 2 a.m. Saturday.
“Instead of sitting sweating bullets -- the crew was out here -- I figured I’d go have a swim, cool off, go back to sleep,” Eckerly said
You can watch footage of crews clearing out the damage from Friday night's storms below.