Consumers Energy, a public utility that provides natural gas and electricity to close to 7 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents, told local station WOOD-TV that more than 300,000 of their residential and business customers had lost power between Wednesday and Thursday.
The public utility told the outlet that power lines were downed in the state on Tuesday night during storms, with several residences in Michigan expected to be without power until Saturday or Sunday.
Consumers spokesman Brian Wheeler told WOOD-TV that the restoration of power in some of the areas might take place earlier than some of the projections suggested, as he revealed that they aren’t fixed times.
“What typically happens at the start of the storm like this, a lot of the times are generated automatically and then as we begin to assess the damage and make our plans for the restoration work, that’s when you see some of the changes,” Wheeler said.
Some of the homes and businesses in Michigan had their power restored by Thursday morning, as an outage map provided by the utility at 8:13 a.m. local time showed that there were 248,029 customers affected.
The map, provided below, shows large areas in red and orange, with the former equivalent to more than 1,000 customers affected and the latter between 201 and 1,000.
Meanwhile, DTE Energy, an electric services company in Detroit, reported that more than 564,000 of its customers were without power by 8:02 a.m on Thursday, bringing the total in the state to more than 800,000.
The DTE Energy map, provided below, also shows large areas in red and orange, with the electric services company classifying the former as more than 2,501 customers affected and the latter between 1,501 and 2,500.
Following the severe weather in Michigan on Tuesday through to Wednesday morning, a string thunderstorms hit the state again on Thursday morning, causing heavy rain in multiple areas.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued flash flood warnings for several parts of Metro Detroit and multiple roads were closed or restricted due to the flooding.
The agency also issued a warning of further thunderstorms throughout Thursday, tweeting: “Hot and humid conditions will exist again today. Afternoon heat indices well into the 90s.
“The environment will again bring the chance for showers and thunderstorms. Strong to severe thunderstorms are possible, greatest potential late this evening and overnight.”
Michigan wasn’t the only state affected by power outages this week, as over 300,000 people in Wisconsin and Illinois were left without power after storms battered the Midwest on Tuesday.
There has also been flooding in Arizona and Iowa over the past week, as multiple areas of the U.S. have been affected by storms.
The severe weather currently affecting Michigan comes as Florida and other southern parts of the country prepare for Tropical Storm Fred, which is expected to make landfall in the U.S. on Friday.
Newsweek has contacted Consumers Energy and DTE Energy for comment.
