ANN ARBOR (WWJ) - Officials said the worst ice storm to hit Ann Arbor in over 10 years has caused major damage to trees, powerlines and equipment as the city deals with the aftermath on Thursday morning.
According to the Ann Arbor Fire Department, dozens of wires have fallen down in the city and authorities fielded hundreds of phone calls for help after a major winter storm walloped Michigan over the last 24 hours.
Meteorologists said a substantial amount of freezing rain fell across Metro Detroit with widespread ice amounts ranging from .25 inches to .75 inches, but the ice storm appeared to target Ann Arbor.
“Washtenaw County was particularly hard hit, and they saw ice levels to that three quarters of an inch,” said Matthew Paul, executive vice president of distribution operations with DTE Energy. “That is really the area that saw the most ice — in and around the Ann Arbor area actually was the largest accumulation.”
The fire department reported major damage to the city's electrical infrastructure and it was one of the highest call-for-service shifts in their history.
"DTE's phone line and app crashed throughout this incident, which made reporting of incidents impossible," fire officials said.
The DTE Energy outage map showed numerous power outages in Washtenaw County affecting almost 40% of customers. So far, over 1,100 outages have been reported.
As of 9:30 a.m. Thursday, DTE and Consumers Energy were reporting a total of more than 680,000 customers without power. Most outages, officials said, were in the southern portion of the state, concentrated around the Metro Detroit area; with Oakland, Hillsdale, Macomb, and Jackson counties among the hardest hit.
Fire officials warned residents to be wary of downed powerlines and treat every fallen wire as if it is energized.
"If lines are surrounded with caution tape, it means DTE or FD has been out and the line has been reported," the department said.
According to DTE, residents should maintain a 25 feet distance from wires and watch out for anything that those wires may be in contact with, such as metal fences. As a reminder, don't touch anything that those wires are touching, the company warned.
Anyone who notices downed powerlines should call 911 first, then call 1-804-774-747 or go to the DTE website to report it.