** UPDATE 8/29 — 70,000+ DTE customers still without power, two days after storms brought down trees and wires across Metro Detroit **
-----------------------------------------------------------------
DETROIT (WWJ) -- There's been some progress as DTE Energy crews work to restore power to a few hundred thousand homes and businesses in Metro Detroit, following Tuesday night's gusty storms.
In a midday update Wednesday, DTE officials said the outages peaked at around 300,000 customers, after two waves of thunderstorms barreled through Southeast Michigan.
By around noon, Brian Calka, Vice President of Distribution Operations for DTE said about 37% those who lost power have been restored, leaving about 180,000 outages.
By 8:30 p.m., around 109,000 outages remained, according to the DTE Outage Map.
Looking ahead, Calka said: "Our goals are to restore 75% of those customers who were affected by the end of the day today, and that number will move to 90% by the end of the day tomorrow. And the balance of those customers, remaining customers, would be restored by Friday."
A second dose of heavy rain Wednesday evening led to flooding across Metro Detroit, leading to closures of multiple freeways. The northbound Southfield Freeway was closed at I-94, while northbound I-75 was closed at Dix, as of 8:30 p.m.
With cleanup and restoration underway in all parts of the WWJ listening area, DTE said it has brought in around 1,500 line workers from outside our area to help.
After walloping West and Mid-Michigan earlier in the day with winds in excess of 60 mph, the storms arrived in Metro Detroit before 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Thompson said the top wind gust at Detroit Metro Airport was 76 mph, while one spot in Macomb County reported a 75 mph gust.
Craig Bryson with the Road Commission for Oakland County told WWJ's Luke Sloan extra crews were called in to work Tuesday night and they were being dispatched across the county to assess the damage.
"Right now we're just trying to get a handle on where all the downed trees are, get the crews in, get them assigned to get out to those locations and try to cut up the trees our haul them off the roads," he said, Tuesday night. "Whatever we can do to clear the roads and make the roads passable as quickly as possible."
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard told Sloan the county's 911 operations center got about 1,000 calls in the span of an hour and 1,400 over two hours.
They got about 500 calls for service, including four calls regarding capsized boats and possible drownings at Walled Lake and Walnut Lake. Search and rescue crews were called out to search the water, but Bouchard said all people have been accounted for and no bodies were found during the search efforts.
Reporting from hard-hit Rochester Hills, WWJ's Charlie Langton said it's was just a mess out there Wednesday morning.
"I am literally looking at a wooden transmission pole cracked in half, and the wires are on this guy's house, here in Rochester Hills, at Livernois, just north of Avon," Langton reported. "Now, DTE crews are here — they've been working overnight."
Resident Carl Wagner said a wind gust came through, he heard some explosions, and this was the result. "I came over here last night, this guy was over here, he said he was cutting his lawn, and he just ran for his garage."
Fortunately, no injuries were reported in that incident.
The line of storms also packed a punch on the other side of the state, with Consumers Energy reporting more than 150,000 customers were without power, with the largest impacted area around Grand Rapids.
So, is this the end of it? Unfortunately, AccuWeather Meteorologist Joe Lundberg said the risk for another thunderstorm remains on Wednesday.
"Today I think it'll be spotty in nature; not the big line that came roaring through late yesterday and early last night with all the severe weather in so many places," Lundberg said, speaking live on WWJ. "I think if anything happens like that, it would be very spotty in nature this afternoon and this evening."
As for the rest of the week, Lundberg said the biggest chance for another severe storm will be Friday. "As the day grows deeper, I think the chance for a thunderstorm increases, and I'm concerned about severe weather with that, later in the day and at night."
Some better news: AccuWeather is calling for a pleasant Labor Day weekend in Metro Detroit, with highs reaching the low 80s, with lower humidity and plenty of sunshine. Labor Day Monday itself is looking even cooler, with Detroit's forecasted high reaching only 73 degrees.
Stay with WWJ for the latest weather updates along with traffic, every 10 minutes on the 8s. Listen live anytime right here, on your smart speaker, or on the FREE Audacy app.