Crews Restoring Power To Hundreds Of Thousands In Michigan

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan's top energy providers are making progress restoring power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses left in the dark by outages caused by severe thunderstorms, but some customers could remain without power through the weekend.

As of 11 a.m. Friday, more than 400,000 customers across the state remained without power. About 250,000 of those outages were reported in southeastern Michigan by DTE Energy, which estimated that about 700,000 of its customers had been affected by two waves of severe weather this week.

At one point, more than 850,000 customers lost power across the state, The Detroit News reported.

More than 1,800 DTE Energy personnel and another 1,000 out-of-state line crews were working to repair some 3,100 downed power lines and broken poles damaged by high winds.

DTE Energy said Thursday that "the vast majority of outages — around 95% — should be restored by the end of Sunday."

Consumers Energy reported more than 148,000 of its customers still without power as of 11 a.m. Friday. CEO Garrick Rochow said most customers without power were expected to have electricity restored by Saturday, but some outages will last further into the weekend.

Indiana Michigan Power and Great Lakes Power reported a combined total of 4,700 customers without power late Friday morning.

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