SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) -- Several thousand homes and businesses are still without power, after gusty storms blew through Metro Detroit on Tuesday.
As of 10 a.m. on Wednesday, DTE Energy was reporting more than 10,000 of its customers were waiting to have their power restored. DTE said it expects crews to have 95% of those customers back on the grid sometime today, and the remaining 5% tomorrow. (There were close to 30,000 at the peak of these outages).
Tuesday's severe storms brought 60-mile-per hour wind gusts and hail up to an inch, bringing down tree branches and power lines, particularly in southern Oakland County.
As cleanup continues, with more storms on the way, Brighton Area Fire Chief Mike O'Brien is reminding the public to stay at least 25 feet away from any downed or damaged wires.
"Anytime a tree makes contact with those power lines or the line comes down for some reason, we wanna make sure that people give that a lot of space," O'Brien said. "And sometimes they have to be aware of where those powerlines have come down and they're arcing and sparking. So, we tell our fire crews at least to be one pole-length away."
Residents are urged to call 911 if a large tree or powerline has fallen on their house or over the road.
AccuWeather Meteorologist Joe Lundberg said there would be two opportunities for more thunderstorms on Wednesday — the first moving in before noon.
"There's some thunderstorms that have been working their way eastward out of the southwest corner of the state over the past couple of hours," Lundberg said. "They are weakening, as expected, so there may not be much more than a shower with these as we head toward late morning and midday."
Lundeberg said later Wednesday afternoon into the evening, however, "That's the best chance for seeing a gusty thunderstorm, so it'll have the most impact on the evening commute."
Looking ahead, the National Weather Service is keeping an eye on a "marginal" chance for severe weather on Thursday, most likely in areas south of the I-69 corridor. There's also more rain in the forecast, with a popup thunderstorm possible again on Friday.
The good news is it has cooled down into the 80s (if you can call that "cool") for the remainder of the week. AccuWeather says it'll only get up to 80 degrees in Detroit on Wednesday, 86 on Thursday and up to 89 on Friday.
The earliest Metro Detroit could see clear skies and sunshine is Saturday, with high humidity and a high temperature of around 86 degrees. [More details from AccuWeather HERE].
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