ECORSE (WWJ) - Officials issued a stern warning to residents in the Metro Detroit area after DTE said its field crews were being approached while working to restore power caused by severe storms earlier this week.
Ecorse Councilmember Gabrielle Worthy took to Facebook on Thursday to tell residents in her city to leave DTE workers alone as they make repairs to powerlines and other equipment following Wednesday's bad weather.
If they didn't, Worthy warned that the crews can and will stop work out of concern for their safety -- and delay any progress.
"Please do not bum rush the DTE crews," Worthy wrote. "After speaking with them on the phone they have made it clear that if they come to a scene and are bumbarded [sic] by residents, they will and can leave the area."
Worthy told residents to call DTE at (800) 477-4747 to report on outage, or visit the company's outage center online here.
"[There's] no need to rush them," Worthy added. " It's clear that they're doing the best they can."
As if 10:30 a.m. on Friday morning, DTE estimated 81,176 customers are still without power as efforts to repair storm damage enters its third day.
"More than 70% of customers impacted by Wednesday’s storms have been restored, and our storm teams are laser-focused on restoring power to the remaining customers as safely and quickly as possible," DTE said in an update to its website. "Please continue to be safe and watch for downed lines – always stay at least 25 feet away from power lines and anything they may be in contact with."
On Wednesday, July 26, a line of strong thunderstorms that contained widespread 60-70 mph wind gusts with locally higher gusts resulted in numerous downed trees, downed powerlines, and around 165,000 power outages in southeast Michigan.
Areas around Ann Arbor and in Detroit/Grosse sustained the most damage from the storm.
The National Weather Service is currently investigating if the storms, which moved along a 300-mile swath from near the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan to the southern shore of Lake Erie, could be classified as a derecho.
According to weather experts, a derecho is declared if wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles and has wind gusts of at least 58 mph or greater along most of the length of the storm's path.
DTE crews are racing against the clock as more bad weather is forecasted to blow in later on Friday.
AccuWeather meteorologists warned that additional rounds of dangerous, disruptive and damaging thunderstorms are expected to erupt anytime from the afternoon to evening hours, from southern South Dakota and central Nebraska to Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
NWS issued a Flood Watch from now until 6 a.m. Saturday, July 29, for the entire Metro Detroit area and points to the south including Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne Counties.
The biggest threats at this time sound like a broken record for Michiganders — the storms are forecasted to bring damaging winds that could get up to 80 mph, large hail and of course, flooding.
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