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Crews working to restore power to over 70,000 in Michigan after storms

From CBS News · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Severe storms produced three tornadoes in Southeast Michigan and left 75,961 customers without power by Saturday evening, according to DTE Energy’s outage map.
  • About 4,000 utility workers are repairing damage after roughly 450,000 customers were affected since Wednesday.
  • DTE urged residents to avoid cleanup near power lines and keep generators outdoors while crews work to restore 90% to 92% of customers by Saturday night.

Nearly two days after severe weather tore through Metro Detroit, more than 70,000 people remained without electricity as crews worked across Southeast Michigan. The National Weather Service confirmed that three tornadoes touched down in the region.

An EF-0 tornado moved through Lincoln Park on Thursday, with winds reaching 70 mph around 4 p.m. The storm damaged the park outside the Kennedy Memorial Recreation and Senior Center and uprooted trees along Fort Street. The First Baptist Church next door was not damaged.

We were very amazed by the damage around us, but very little to our church building

· Pastor Maurice StimageStimage described how New Liberty Baptist Church avoided major structural damage despite destruction around it.

In Detroit, an EF-2 tornado destroyed homes, industrial buildings and power lines around Meldrum and Benson streets. New Liberty Baptist Church suffered only a power outage. Pastor Maurice Stimage said the community had never experienced such devastation and that church members planned to help residents and businesses recover.

Damage that I am seeing here is one of the, if not the most, significant damage due to a weather event in my career

· Brian ClakaThe DTE Energy executive assessed the scale of the storm damage and utility response.

DTE Energy Senior Vice President of Electric Operations Brian Claka described the damage as among the most significant caused by a weather event in his career. About 4,000 utility workers were focused on repairs Saturday afternoon. DTE said approximately 450,000 customers had been affected since the storms began Wednesday, while 75,961 remained without service at 5:45 p.m. Saturday.

The utility asked residents not to begin cleanup until crews assess nearby power lines. It also warned that generators must remain outdoors. DTE said it aimed to restore power to 90% to 92% of customers by Saturday night.

Please, please do not put them indoors. They should remain outdoors

· Brian ClakaClaka warned residents about the dangers of using generators inside buildings during the outage.
About this summary

Originally published by CBS News. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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