Thunderstorms cause power outage for thousands in Washtenaw County; flooded streets also reported
Thunderstorms have knocked out power to more than 5,000 DTE Energy customers in Washtenaw County, said DTE Energy spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba.
The outages are scattered throughout the county, and about 20,000 DTE customers are without power system-wide, Bodipo-Memba said. The outages are concentrated in Washtenaw and western Wayne counties, he said.
Localized flooding has also been reported in some areas, especially at State Street near Briarwood Mall and on South Industrial Drive.
Repair crews are already out, Bodipo-Memba said, and hope to have all power restored by tonight. Some areas may not have power restored until Tuesday morning, he said.
The largest Washtenaw County outage appears to be affecting more than 4,000 customers in Superior and Ypsilanti townships. Other significant outages are to the north and south of Saline.
The storms that knocked out power moved through the area between 3:30 and 6 p.m. today.
For up-to-date weather conditions and forecasts, check AnnArbor.com's weather page.
Check DTE Energy's power outage map for updates and restoration estimates.
The map shows scattered power outages in shades of red, yellow, green and purple. Red areas indicate more than 2,500 customers without power. Brown areas indicate 1,500 to 2,500 customers without power. Yellow areas indicate 500 to 1,500 people without power. Green areas indicate 100 to 500 customers without power. Purple areas have fewer than 100 customers without power.
Comments
Ann English
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 11:06 p.m.
If I remember correctly, Governor Snyder lives in Superior Township, one of the two townships where the most people lost power. State Street fllooded near Briarwood Mall? While at Bally Total Fitness, nobody talked about flooded streets, but we did see a cell phone video of people in pitch darkness in a building, crowded together, without power, in Joplin Missouri on CNN as we stationary cycled. Of course the conversation was captioned. Someone did have a flashlight there, but no faces were lit. It remains to be seen if Chaucer and roads off to the north side of Packard flood this summer, or at least if basements in those areas flood. We'll probably be reading about the homes off Champagne Street for sure later on.
Tom Teague
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 3:10 p.m.
It's wise to heed the alarms though: Until yesterday, the largest officially recorded number of deaths from a single tornado was in Flint in 1953. In 1965, there were a number of Michigan fatalities in a large outbreak on Palm Sunday. A long string of good Tornado luck for Ann Arbor doesn't mean it can't happen here.
Peg
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 3:03 p.m.
The flooding on S. State Street in the Briarwood area is a chronic problem and the City of Ann Arbor needs to address this issue. One problem is that all but one of the large medians that divide the traffic on State St. between Eisenhower and I-94 are just huge, ugly, concrete surfaces. There is no grass for rain to soak into. The City expects citizens and businesses to minimize the amount of concrete surfaces that are put on private land and yet the City doesn't follow this itself. In addition to contributing toward flooding, these concrete medians are a terrible eyesore at this entrance to the City from I-94. There are usually weeds growing through cracks in the concrete and there are no trees or green grass to make the area look nice. The area is also dangerous for pedestrians but that's another separate, but important, issue.
treetowncartel
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 2:42 a.m.
This is minimal, the body count is well over 100 in Joplin in Missouri. Being without the ice dispenser for a few hours is but a small price to pay for living in this great state that rarely experiences fatalities at the hand of mother nature.
spm
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 11:48 a.m.
I agree! Lived here my whole life and I've yet to see 1) a tornado destroying whole towns, 2) massive floods, 3) wildfires burning down large tracks of homes, 4) devastating earthquakes, etc. etc. A bit of snow, ice, and a few thunderstorms are fine with me.
Jafo04
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 1:12 a.m.
Somehow this has to be Snyder's fault, his tax cuts must have had some impact on the storms... allegedly of course. -Jafo
Turd Ferguson
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 12:46 a.m.
@WalkingJoe, Which storm? I counted 4 that went through.
WalkingJoe
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 1:47 a.m.
We had rain around 3 and then a bad storm between 5 and 6. So I guess here we had just one storm.
WalkingJoe
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 12:21 a.m.
Our power here just off Ellsworth near the Meijers on Carpenter went of several times for a couple minutes each time but thankfully it stayed on after that. This was about a half hour after the storm.
Cash
Mon, May 23, 2011 : 11:40 p.m.
Power just now restored in Superior Township (7:30 PM). Lost power at 3:30 PM....we had a wind gust and some rain....nothing more than that at the time and after it, the sun came out. So not sure what was happening. But as we are a couple of miles from the Kia Technical Center....we tend to have power blips and outages more than others. Argh.
Kai Petainen
Mon, May 23, 2011 : 10:38 p.m.
interesting storm... it hit the south side of ann arbor and missed the north. here's a photo that shows how one side was clear and the other rainy (left is south) <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahknaten/5752241331/in/photostream" rel='nofollow'>http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahknaten/5752241331/in/photostream</a>
1ofalpha
Tue, May 24, 2011 : 5:25 a.m.
@Kai Petainen. Awesome photographs of A^2 storms. Thanks!