Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Intense storms and gusty winds blew across the WHMI listening area today.

Afternoon tornado warnings that were issued have all been cancelled, along with a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for southeastern Michigan.

In the aftermath of storms last night and this afternoon that brought damaging straight-line winds of almost 70mph – there have been a lot of reports of tree damage, and damage to local homes and vehicles.

Fowlerville Fire Chief Bob Feig told WHMI “Right now the whole county is kinda going nuts still. We have trees and wires down, and Howell has a structure fire. It is still a little bit of mayhem throughout the county, but it is slowing down a little bit and we’re all playing a little bit of catch up right now”.

Numerous reports of trees being downed, blocking roads, or being uprooted. Some in the Parkers Corners area near Howell, Chilson Road, the Maltby and Rickett Road area in Brighton, Lone Tree and Pleasant Valley Road in Hartland, the Lakeshore Pointe Drive subdivision, and the Brighton Gardens neighborhood.

Some reports of trees falling on vehicles, but luckily, not hearing of any injuries associated with those.

Due to the torrential rainfall that occurred with the storm, flash flooding is occurring and there’s debris across various roadways. Do not drive vehicles through flooded roadways.

There is significant flooding being reported in the downtown Milford area.

Meanwhile, lights are still out for thousands of homes and businesses across the WHMI listening area.

Scattered power outages remained, with some significant pockets of customers impacted in Howell, Brighton, Highland and the Proud Lake Recreation area per DTE’s Outage Map. Link provided.


In an evening update, DTE said its Storm Response Team has already restored more than 70,000 customers affected by the multiple waves of storms that impacted Southeast Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday. DTE says it expects to restore 65% of impacted customers by end of day today, 90% of customers by end of day Saturday, and the remainder by end of day Sunday. The utility said 3,400 Storm Response Team members, including more than a thousand field workers from outside Michigan, are working as quickly as possible to restore power to everyone affected. People are reminded to stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines, and treat any downed line as live and dangerous, even if it looks harmless. Anyone using a generator is reminder to keep it outside and away from doors and windows.

Photos: WHMI Listeners